System and method for obtaining revenue through the display of hyper-relevant advertising on moving objects

ABSTRACT

A system for obtaining revenue through the display of advertising on fixed or moving objects id disclosed. Such objects receive, store, poll and extract data to present content based on the time of day, locations, and relative movements in a specific environment, where data and information stored in moving or mobile objects within that environment can be transmitted between those objects or to stationary objects, where it is then used to enable and control such displays for which the owners of those objects are then compensated. The system enables the display of hyper-relevant ad content with synchronized remote audio, personal messaging and public service alerts on surrounding objects and provides for the real-time logging and later downloading of data to confirm communications and content deliveries between objects, track and measure consumer engagement, verify consumer&#39;s direct responses to ad viewings with accountability systems.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from U.S. provisional application Ser.No. 60/783,577, filed on Mar. 16, 2006, incorporated herein by referencein its entirety, and from U.S. provisional application Ser. No.60/794,006, filed on Apr. 21, 2006, incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

This application is related to U.S. nonprovisional application Ser. No.11/552,932, filed Oct. 25, 2006, incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety, which claims priority from U.S. provisional application Ser.No. 60/729,919, filed on Oct. 25, 2005, incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not Applicable

INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC

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NOTICE OF MATERIAL SUBJECT TO COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

A portion of the material in this patent document is subject tocopyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States andof other countries. The owner of the copyright rights has no objectionto the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or thepatent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent andTrademark Office publicly available file or records, but otherwisereserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The copyright owner does nothereby waive any of its rights to have this patent document maintainedin secrecy, including without limitation its rights pursuant

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention pertains generally to effectively providing advertisingcontent with respect to a prospective consumer's desires and, moreparticularly, to an integrated system and method for directinghyper-relevant content to consumers through the use of wirelesstechnologies for the exchange of information, including the compensationof users for providing or viewing content.

2. Description of Related Art

In the ad business, there are a handful of yet to be realized holygrails. They are: (1) Deliver your ad to the correct demographic (age,gender, income level, etc.); (2) Deliver it at a time its recipient issure to see it (not when he's out for a soda or in the bathroom); (3)Pitch your ad to consumers who are truly interested in what you areselling (instead of wasting advertising dollars on those who are not);(4) Catch consumers when they're relaxed and open to suggestion (insteadof preoccupied with other things); (5) Reach audiences TV can't reachand do it with more targeted spots in a single day than they'd catch onregular TV; (6) Connect with buyers at the right time (i.e.: sell themfood at meal times); (7) Get your message to consumers when they are atan opportune location (for example, promote a great restaurant at mealtime a couple of blocks from the place); (8) Put ads into thedistribution pipeline in just seconds using the Internet; (9) Basebillings on the actual content delivered and do it all electronicallyand automatically; (10) Give advertisers proof their ads actually ranand track them on a minute to minute basis; (11) Provide feedback to theagency or its clients on consumer engagement; (12) When your ad shows,let viewers buy (or at least get more information) at the push of abutton. Unlike any existing commercial advertising system, the presentinvention delivers all of these objectives, and more, by creating atotally new kind of mobile communications platform and forum.

Advertising.

Madison Avenue is working to outdated media models and needs to figureout emerging media fast or it stands to lose billions of dollars toothers who will. Over the next decade, major money will be set in motionto create entirely new ad platforms and new ways to reach consumers inwhat today is a $250 billion industry. In the process, the ways andmeans of the contemporary ad business are going to be turned inside out,not so much because of the present invention, but because of the manyemerging technologies that make it possible. For years, marketers havetaken their best shots at consumers. Much of it is creative guessworkwhich follows available technology and distribution streams that wereinvented for other purposes. Television, for example, developed as acommunications resource and quickly evolved into a form of freeentertainment where marketers could insert the products and servicesothers wished to sell into the paths of consumers while they were havinga good time. It was not important if those people were really interestedin the products and services; TV was simply the best way to exposeproducts and services to consumers because TV had traffic. However, adexecutives are beginning to recognize how much money is being wasted onantiquated media plans. For the first time in history, TV Spot ads werethe biggest loser in ad spending for 2005, sinking 9.5% to $15.5billion, because viewers have ‘left the building.’ Yet, newspapers,magazines, cable, and syndication all showed gains, with the category ofoutdoor advertising rising by 9.8% to $3.5 billion.

While consumers are looking for new things to do and new ways toentertain themselves, marketers are looking for audiences. However,audiences today are increasingly sophisticated about avoidingadvertising messages. What is needed isn't just any audience, but anaudience that truly cares about what advertisers have to say and sell,and those ad messages have to be bright, quick, and relevant to the newaudience's current interests and lifestyle. Today, the gold rush istoward the Internet and to what has been termed the “3rd screen,” thosetiny carry-around displays found on cell phones, iPods, and PDAs. Onceagain, marketers want to insert themselves (and their content) into oureveryday business and fun. It is estimated that as much as 25% to 30% ofthe $100 billion spent each year on brand advertising will soon find itsway to such mobile screens, but will users who pay for such servicesaccept advertising? To borrow a statement from a highly-placed marketingindustry executive: “If I'm a 22-year old male and I've downloaded four3D games to my phone in the last 30 days, chances are pretty good I'd beinterested in seeing a Sony PS3 commercial on my device.” He may beright. Recent studies have determined that kids like watching ads aslong as they represent something they're interested in. Look at theSuper Bowl, where large numbers of viewers tune in primarily to watchthe ads. Consumers like these want to participate, want more to talkabout, and want ultimately to have a say, so they can certainly take thetime to tell advertisers about the kinds of content they would like tosee. Yet, today's marketers have failed to recognize that there aretechnologies emerging today that can open dialogs between consumers andcreatives and still leave the field open for expression and execution bythe professionals in it.

New canvases are needed along with the audiences to go with them, but tosecure them will require more than repurposed TV spots for tiny screenson the go. What is required is a systemic rebirth of the ad gameincluding novel applications and pragmatic distribution. But more thananything, it requires marketers to get more in touch with consumers whoare more in touch with themselves, with consumers who are articulateenough to tell us at least two things: 1) who they are, and 2) what theywant. Technology can enable this, but there needs to be an economicreason for consumers to opt into the game. The present invention hasbeen conceived to provide just that.

Visual Congestion

American cities are converging on BladeRunner-like visual clutter, andfew regulatory brakes have been applied to this accelerating buildup.Electronic displays on taxi tops vie with sign-wrapped busses andtrailers, bus shelters plastered with ads, lighted store signs, and aprofusion of billboards, many with revolving panels and flashing lights,and now many with radio-enabled audio. The situation promises to worsen.Nanoscale components promise larger, cheaper, high-resolution videoscreens that are bound to find their way into signs, surfaces, andproducts of all kinds. We are already inundated with visual ads: ourdaily sensory diet includes thousands of commercial impressions, frompop-ups and animations in Web content to TV's full arsenal of 30-secondspots, now with product placements embedded in what remains of theentertainment. With increasingly new technologies and eye-catchingdesigns competing for drivers' attention, regulatory agencies, trafficengineers, and advocates are beginning to question which of thesepotential distractions may also pose a risk to driving. To what extentcan commercial signage be blamed for accidents? What do we know aboutthe nature of attention and distraction? Can this proliferation berationally controlled?

Surveys show that signs and billboards indeed compromise traffic safety,especially at intersections and on curves. Flashing lights, motion,visual clutter, and novelty (e.g., the Times Square/Las Vegas Stripeffect that is replicating so quickly in major cities) are implicated aspart of the problem. Additionally, research on driver distractionsconfirms that visual complexity compromises safety by forcing drivers toscan the environment longer for street signs, turns, or criticallandmarks. Researchers using eye-tracking devices to monitor drivers intraffic are finding that video signs are more distracting than staticsigns and can act as catalysts, increasing ad gazing of all types, evenin unsafe situations. Similar studies are documenting the effects ofvisual distractions on both young and old drivers to determine whatconstitutes safe, manageable amounts of information, and the effects ofanimation, video, and moving panels on drivers, in efforts to setstandards so that electronic signs and billboards are legible andnon-distracting. To be non-distracting, however, is to contradict theentire purpose of outdoor advertising, and therein lies the problem.

It is undisputed that people are easily distracted. Theories ofattention point out relationships between mental excitation/interest andthe ability to perform tasks. We function best somewhere between boredomand over-stimulation. What researchers have found is that new orunexpected stimuli trigger involuntary responses and the more bored orunfocused we are, the more susceptible we are to these surprises.Studies have also identified modes of visual perception: a focal, orsearch, mode that is narrow and specific, and an ambient mode that is asort of default, which is not focused on anything in particular, buthaving better peripheral awareness. We've learned that computer usersperforming search tasks in the center of the screen are slowed whenobjects appear on the perimeter, even when they aren't consciously awareof them. The more peripheral objects, the greater the distraction. Thus,the more we direct our attention towards that periphery, the less wefocus on what's in the middle of our screens, or in the middle of ourroads. Researchers have also found that new, moving and looming objectscommand attention; that the onset of motion triggers overriding orurgent attention, possibly tapping the survival instinct; and thatchanges in color can capture attention. None of this proves that outdoorads cause accidents, but behavioral mechanisms clearly come into playwhen drivers encounter roadside signage. The notion that content is amajor factor in drawing attention is starting to be examined. Becausecontent and distractions are inevitable, a solution may lie incontrolling them and in determining exactly how, when and where theyshould occur. That's a tall order, but it is also a primary objective ofthe present invention.

Physical Congestion

Just as advertising seems to clutter our landscape, so do movingobjects. Traffic congestion in our major cities has reached epidemicproportions, prompting nationwide studies to get a handle on theproblem. In places like Los Angeles, where, in the late fifties, onecould drive anywhere to its outskirts in 20 minutes, it now takes hours,regardless of the time of day. According to the 2005 Urban MobilityStudy Report, released in May by the Texas Transportation Institute ofTexas A&M University, sixty-seven percent of the peak period travel wascongested in 2003, compared to only 32 percent in 1982; fifty-ninepercent of the major road system was congested in 2003 compared to 34percent in 1982. The number of hours of the day when congestion isencountered has grown from about 4.5 hours in 1982 to more than 7.1hours today. Traffic congestion is worse in the large urban areas thanin the smaller ones, but even the smaller areas are unable to keep pacewith rising demand. According to the study, 10 years is not anunrealistic timeframe to go from an idea to a completed project or to anaccepted program due to the significant planning and developmentrequired. But in ten years at current growth rates, the urban areaaverage congestion values will jump to the next highestclassification—i.e.: medium areas in 2013 will have the congestionproblems large areas had in 2003.

What does this mean in cost to consumers? In 2003, congestion (based onwasted time and fuel) cost drivers about $63.1 billion in the 85 urbanareas studied. The average cost per traveler in those 85 urban areas was$794. Costs ranged from $1,038 per traveler in “very large” urban areasdown to $222 per traveler in the “small” areas—and all this with fuelcosting far less than it does today. Of the 85 urban areas studied, 2.3billion gallons of fuel were wasted, an amount that would fill 46supertankers or 230,000 gasoline tank trucks. In urban areas withpopulations greater than 3 million, 1.5 billion gallons of fuel (morethan two-thirds of the total!) was wasted. At $2.00 per gallon, that's$3 billion tossed out by drivers in stop and go traffic. During thatsame period the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA)reports advertisers spent $5.5 billion on out-of-home advertising. Ifoutdoor advertisers had instead placed that $5.5 billion in ads usingthe present invention, they'd not only have put their money into asuperior ad platform, they'd have been able to reimburse drivers fortheir wasted $3 billion and still have $2.5 billion left over to spendelsewhere.

Plenty of studies have been launched to figure out what to do about ourworsening traffic, but few concrete proposals have surfaced. Certainly,no proposals have emerged suggesting that we compensate drivers fortheir daily delays. Just the same, until we have a meaningful cure forcongestion, the present invention can, to a degree, offset owners fortheir wasted time and money while they experience it.

Moving Objects

For as long as there have been moving objects, people have advertised onthem. From early buckboards and stagecoaches to modern trains, subways,busses and aircraft, moving objects are the basis for corporate and selfpromotion, personal expression, identification and advertising. Today,it is not unusual to see cars, trucks, entire busses, evenindependently-towed trailers adorned with wraps or ads for products andservices—many of these are backlighted to draw the attention of driversand pedestrians while they parade down city streets nationwide. One ofthe world's largest advertisers, ClearChannel Outdoor, markets a varietyof Taxi Tops for use in city traffic atop cabs. These come in varioussizes and in two, three or four sided models which are typicallybacklighted to display graphics at eye level to passing sidewalk orpedestrian foot traffic. Some of these have lenticular screens to createmovement, built-in LED readout pads, or larger LED panels to producescrolling text, or more elaborate displays with flash type animation.The latter can be optionally linked to an onboard GPS system so it canbe programmed to show only on specific streets or in special areas ofthe city. On these displays, ClearChannel's clients control the content,not in real time, but well in advance of street exposure. ClearChannelalso offers a 14″×36″ flat, bolt-on trunk mounted sign which ispositioned more or less at eye level to following motorists.ClearChannel's Taxi Media division refers to these as advertising“tonnage” since the car behind will view the same static, print ad for 5to 20 minutes (the time a vehicle spends behind it in traffic in suchplaces as New York City).

Another company, MotionLED, sells a long, slim LED panel which can beattached with suction cups to the interior of a vehicle's windows whereit can scroll text messages horizontally, similar to those present inretail stores. These units are available in four lengths, from 8 to 40inches, and in a choice of lettering in one of three colors. All ofthese are piecemeal efforts toward the presentation of advertisingmessages in public spaces and represent little more than a “shotgun”approach to demographic targeting. Advertisers using these techniquescan only hope they will get exposure in the right part of town or at theright time of day and to people who may be inclined towards theirproduct.

Distribution

Madison Avenue is working aggressively to convert its costly,labor-intensive and still largely paper-based process of buying andbilling media. Even the Internet has yet to develop the crucial rules ofbusiness or programming schemas for buying and selling online thatMadison Avenue truly needs. A recently released status report compiledby the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) shows thatthe Internet has achieved only one out of nine essential steps forconducting all electronic advertising, giving it the worst “discrepancy”rates (the percentage of advertising buys that don't run as originallyordered) of any major medium. That puts the Internet on par without-of-home, radio, and network TV as the least progressive electronicbusiness trading partners. Even the most analog of all media—magazinesand newspapers—have made greater electronic business strides than theInternet and are today capable of at least taking orders electronically.The advertising community needs to engage in a massive combined effortbefore it can claim independence from the labor-intensive manual stepsof paper processing and human input which drives up the cost of mediabuys and produces accounting inaccuracies. The present inventionrepresents not merely an ad platform to deliver hyper-relevant content,but is one which is totally electronic from the ground up, integratingcreativity, distribution, tracking, measurement, engagement,accountability and compensation into a single, verifiable, automatedclosed-loop network. As comprehensive and seamless a system has beenpreviously unheard of in the world of contemporary advertising.

Television

Advertisers place ads everywhere from skywriting to urinals and fromgrocery store check-out dividers to the fruits and veggies themselves.However, it has always been the full motion video display that deliversthe goods. Advancements in flat screen technology have allowed displaysto creep into elevators, gas pumps and restrooms—wherever someone with aneed to pause for a few seconds is present. Just as relentlessly,marketers are pursuing consumers who are on the move. With nearly 200million U.S. subscribers to wireless services, marketers are wonderingif ads beamed to wireless devices such as cell phones, Blackberries andhybrid devices will evolve into a viable media platform withoutupsetting their users. Some have referred to GPS cell phones as “thesilver bullet” since they promise to let marketers send retail pitchesto mobile users who might be in the vicinity of their stores. ChryslerCorporation is launching its own Mobile Phone TV Channel called “TheJeep Channel” which will actually run TV style commercials on cellphones.

From tiny screens to huge ones: ClearChannel's Outdoor Division andDigital Advertising Network, a Montreal provider of digital screennetworks, have teamed to place hundreds of 4×16 foot video displays inshopping mall food courts across the country. Among other things, thesewill show the same kinds of 30-second TV spots you can see in yourliving room. And despite declines in viewership due to ad-skippingDigital Video Recorders (DVRs) and media alternatives such as theInternet, American viewers still spend between four and eight hours perday, per person, glued to their TVs—more than any other nation—but withJapan a close second. If these hours are spent watching commercialtelevision, it's a fair guess they're watching about 15 minutes ofcommercials as well. Look again at the 2005 Urban Mobility Study Report.In the “very large” areas studied, there were 61 hours of delay pertraveler per year, which is 219,600 seconds a year. In television adterms that's nearly thirty 30-second commercial spots per day, andnearly sixty 15-second commercial spots each day. In Los Angeles, thenumbers are even better. Angelinos experience 93 hours of delay pertraveler per year or 334,800 seconds a year. That equals 44.64 30-secondTV spots per average day, or nearly 90 15-second spots per day.

Measurement

Getting a handle on who's watching what in terms of advertising iscritical to proving the worth of a media platform. This need for proofhas spawned a variety of devices, programs and companies—some are nowhousehold words—whose job it is to measure the existing ad viewer base.ClearChannel is evaluating Requests for Proposals (RFPs) looking for newelectronic devices to measure its huge radio audiences. Arbitron, a firmspecializing in ad measurement, has developed a device called a portablepeople meter (PPM), a passive electronic device intended to replace theold-fashioned paper diary methods of documentation. Nielsen MediaResearch, meanwhile, plans a “portfolio” strategy toward adoptingdevices to improve the accuracy of its TV ratings services, which todayalso measure the time-shifted viewing of DVRs, video-on-demand and othercompeting platforms such as the Internet and mobile media. In December2005, Nielsen Outdoor delivered its first wave of out-of-homedemographic data to reveal the most likely people to see advertising onbillboards. Nielsen convinced respondents to wear GPS-equipped pagersize devices called Npods, then combined their respondents' trafficpatterns with a map of outdoor advertising sites to determine who passeswhat kinds of outdoor ads, and when. Nielsen's data does not providedemographics on a per user basis for individual outdoor sites; it onlygives advertisers a sense of what consumers could have been exposed toand roughly how often. The methods for gathering and applying admeasurements are woefully lacking in an industry that, in otherrespects, is mature and widespread.

Fundamental to ad measurement is defining what constitutes an“impression” or a “view.” Special software has been created to measurebillboard views. Systems for television identify the number of householdimpressions, the time of day video-on-demand (VOD) programs are viewed

The present invention does not have these problems. First, the presentinvention is not inserting commercials into an entertainment stream, itis showing ads exclusively. Secondly, since every showing is essentially“requested” by an electronic device on one moving object or another, allsuch requests and completed deliveries are confirmed as they occur andare logged for later downloading. Such integral measurements reveal whatcontent was viewed, precisely where it was viewed (based on GPS data),when and by whom it was viewed (in significant demographic detail), andfor exactly how long. The system also documents whether or not anyimpulse information was requested or if any purchases were made as aresult of the viewing. Finally, the system can the track geographicmovements on the part of moving objects after content viewings toconfirm local area effectiveness—for example driving to a specific hotelor restaurant immediately after seeing an ad for it. Furthermore, everycontent request—whether or not it resulted in a confirmed delivery—isrecorded on the hard drive of every involved moving object. This meansthat a detailed 24-hour map—a “data snapshot,” if you will—can bereconstructed to tell marketers where consumers went, when they went,who may have been with them at the time, what they were looking for asthey did and whether or not in some cases they found it. To the bestknowledge of the Applicant, to date, no other organization, system,means or technology has conceived or proposed offering such an exactingand automated capacity to deliver, measure, collect, process, assess,re-create, distribute, confirm, and then measure again the absoluteeffectiveness of conventional or hyper-relevant advertising and othertypes of consumer content on such a widespread scale and, in addition,to reward the average consumer for so doing.

Targeting

Geo-destination targeting is a process of combining IP-based targeting—avery common technique that allows advertisers to target ads based on thelocation of a user—with, for example, information about the city a useris searching for. For example, if a user in San Francisco is searchingfor an address in Austin, Tex., online marketers can target airline adsadvertising cheap fares from San Francisco to Austin.

In the same way, the present invention can poll information from amoving object. For example, by using its onboard GPS Navigation systemwith its selected destination and route and then coupling thatinformation with an owner's stored profile, a wide variety of highlydirected ads can immediately be triggered for presentation on any of themoving objects it might encounter en route: retail stores of highinterest, restaurants with favorite foods, hotels, trip stops or otherpoints of interest that are known to meet his or his family'spreprogrammed interests. Additionally, if onboard data indicates ahistory in searching out or purchasing certain kinds of items, such asmen's leather boots, for example, and the traveler is passing through atown where there is a manufacturer specializing in fine leather boots,the present invention can “borrow” the displays of surrounding objectsas the traveler nears town or passes through it, and call that fact tohis attention. The providers of those borrowed displays will becompensated in kind for their use.

Behavioral Targeting

Behaviorally-targeted advertising is a way for marketers to get betteraquatinted with their buyers. The Internet allows researchers to trackbuyers after the fact, to measure the things they look at, browsethrough or order. When they go back for more they can be “retargeted”with relevant advertising, relevant because they've already expressedsignificant interest in it, or perhaps in something related to it.Retargeting is used to cross-sell customers who previously boughtsomething, or to contact prospects again in an attempt to lead them to aconversion event, such as a sale, a download or a newsletter signup.This works better with some groups than with others but it's another wayfor potential buyers to tell potential sellers who they are and whatthey want through their actions. Why not take this idea to the nextlevel—as with the present invention—where buyers and sellers actuallycooperate in such an exchange and where each side benefits greatly fromthe effort?

Buzz Targeting

Nielsen BuzzMetrics, a company which specializes in the measurement ofconsumer-generated media and word of mouth, claims, “In a world whereword of mouth is on steroids, marketers need to focus just as much onthe negative buzz as on the positive,” then goes on to characterize mostadvertisers as “μl-equipped” to respond to the quick-acting blogospheresso famous for churning out bad news at prodigious rates. The real‘read-between-the-lines’ news here is that today's consumers are quitewilling to speak out, and speak out loudly, about having better productsand services. In other words, when it comes to understanding theircustomers, advertisers no longer have to be reactive, they can beproactive. They can ask. This is something marketers have not oftenbothered to do. Learning what buyers really want and really careabout—what truly turns them on—and using that to mutual advantage is acritical part of the present invention.

Interactivity

Remember the last item on the list of advertising holy grails? Buy atthe push of a button? XM Satellite Radio is preparing to ship portableMP3 players that will do just that, at least for music. A deal withNapster lets users push a button to “bookmark” songs they hear, and thenthe next time they dock their player with their computer itautomatically buys those songs over the Internet. This is possibly thestart of a trend. The present invention, however, goes a few stepsfurther, thanks to a totally integrated advertising and distributioninfrastructure. When users in moving objects in the field see an ad thatintrigues them, they can push a button to get immediate information(such as pricing and availability), or they can request other thingssuch as having a brochure sent to their computer. If they really likewhat they see and hear, however, they can buy the item on the spot. Noneed to dock with the Internet to complete a transaction, because creditand shipping have all been set up in advance, as will be explainedlater. You can even request a day or two to change your mind before theproduct ships. Imagine you're major film studio releasing a big moviefor the weekend. You've budgeted a substantial ad spend to promote thegrand opening with significant print and TV spots to generateexcitement. How would you like to be able to deliver a mind-blowing30-second trailer with surround sound to 100,000 teenage boys driving at6:00 PM on a Friday night just as they're trying to figure out whatthey're doing that weekend? Then follow it up with a push buttonopportunity to have tickets waiting at a theater just minutes from theirprecise locations along with an electronic discount at a nearby BurgerKing? The present invention allows exactly such a promotion to beexecuted, both instantly and seamlessly.

The New Canvas

Computer and display technologies are considerably more advanced thanthe world of advertising which uses them. Liquid crystal displays(LCDs), Plasma and Digital Light Processing (DLP) have hit their strideand, although they are still expensive for many consumers, they aretoday produced in volume and their costs are falling. LCDs were inventedaround 1963 and were first intended as slimmed-down replacements forbulky CRTs or as screens for wall mounted TVs. Scaling up to largesurfaces, unfortunately, was a problem. Instead, LCDs became thestandard display for everything from watches to laptop computers and, asis commonly known, are rapidly replacing conventional lighting includingbrake lights and tail lamps on production automobiles.

A newer product, Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs), pioneered andpatented by Kodak/Sanyo, now promise that original vision with higherlevels of brightness and sharpness not possible with previoustechnologies. OLEDs are self-luminous but don't require thebacklighting, diffusers or polarizers required by LCDs. OLEDs consist oftwo charged electrodes sandwiched on top of organic light emittingmaterial, which eliminates the need for mercury lamps and yields athinner, lighter display having very low power consumption. Thesedisplays are tough enough to use in portable devices and automobiles,can be viewed at angles up to 160 degrees and are able to produce clear,distinct images, even in bright light. OLEDs also produce high imageresolutions, and because each pixel can be turned on or offindependently, they can create multiple colors in a very fluid, smoothedged display. They are 20% to 50% cheaper than LCD processes yetutilize plastics that make them tougher and more rugged. Manufacturersclaim processes that are akin to the “printing” of newspapers andanticipate panels that are bendable and potentially formable with noinherent barrier to large size glass and displays. In other words, theseshould be very cheap in the future.

Meanwhile, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied PolymerResearch (IAP) in Potsdam are making OLEDs transparent. While metaloxide coatings in earlier OLEDs made them opaque, researchers areinvestigating transparent physical properties. Such displays can beswitched on and off to create graphics or video on demand, embedded innormal glazing. Because these new panels interfere little with visiblelight or views, their development is ideal for such applications asheads-up displays in car windshields or for the kinds of displaysanticipated by the present invention. Of significance is that under theproposed business model, capital investment will become available torefine processes and develop the necessary production equipment for theearlier supply of OLED displays on a cost-effective basis,volume-matched to an established and mature transportation industry.

Government Agencies

It may be beyond the practical scope of this document to assess all ofthe potential areas of interface with respect to the U.S. government andthe present invention. Although the U.S. government has many ongoingprograms relating to moving object telecommunications, the applicant isunaware of any specific government prior art that would conflict withthis invention. One envisions the government's role as essentiallyresponsive and supportive towards the present invention by providing orassisting in the aspects of technical assessment, rulemaking, thecreation of new standards and legislation. There are areas, however,where the U.S. government is independently or with private contractorsexploring programs where the intent or results could overlap and lead tosimilar conclusions or cooperative implementations. Here are three suchexamples:

1) The U.S. Department of Transportation has launched its IntelligentTransportation System (ITS) program, designed to improve transportationsafety and mobility and enhance productivity through the use of advancedcommunications technologies. ITS encompasses a broad range of wirelessand wire line communications-based information and electronicstechnologies which, when integrated into the U.S. transportationinfrastructure and into vehicles themselves, should relieve congestion,improve safety and enhance American productivity. One such ITS studyinvolves the creation of a LIGHT VEHICLE FORWARD-LOOKING, REAR-ENDCOLLISION WARNING SYSTEM for eventual integration into passenger carsworldwide. This study attempts to establish guidelines for the creationof a driver warning system which can prevent or reduce rear endcollisions.

In some respects the proposed system is similar to the present inventionin the sense that it proposes the use of a forward looking proximitysensing technology to read the speed of a vehicle in its forward path,calculate the range and closing speeds and then issue an ‘impactwarning’ or a ‘following too close warning’ if conditions warrant, onethat will be noninvasive to the driver of the following (host) vehicle.ITS properly assesses the available data on driver inattention (some ofwhich was previously taught) but then fails to make recommendationsconsistent with its own and common findings. For example, Section 3.2.1,Background for the ITS guidelines, states: “The primary rear-endcollision causal factor is driver inattention to the driving task(approximately 66% to 77%). Driver inattention in this context includesboth inattention and distraction. Drivers are constantly scanning theroadway environment (i.e., looking down the road, left side, right side,scanning the mirrors and attending to internal and external stimuli).Drivers can only focus well on one thing at a time because the eyesfocus together. So, for example, when drivers are attending to otherstimuli they may not be able to adequately perceive the roadway in frontof the vehicle. It is often necessary for drivers to take their eyes offthe roadway and “attend” to other stimuli when operating in-vehiclecontrols and possibly carrying on conversations. Often drivers usemultiple glances to attend to other stimuli thus taking their eyes offthe roadway. These glances distract the driver and lead to inattentionto the driving task. The glances may be momentary or of extendedduration. Driver distraction accounts for approximately 11% to 24% ofdriver inattention. Drivers can also exhibit a behavior where they arefocused on the roadway ahead but don't perceive the changes that areoccurring. This “looked but didn't see” phenomenon is also indicative ofdriver inattention. This is similar to the previously discussed problemsresulting from distractive advertising.

Unfortunately, ITS, in its recommendations, goes on to assume a verycommon solution found in various moving objects such as aircraft, trainsor other types of machinery: that of installing a prominent visualwarning indicator on the instrument panel of the vehicle, possiblyaugmented by an audio and a haptic (force feedback) warning, or athumping on the throttle pedal. In other words, at a time when aninattentive driver is supposed to be re-engaging his thoughts andresponding to an intense vehicular situation on the road ahead of him,his attention, based on ITS recommendations, is being diverted by yetmore visual, audible and physical stimuli. As noted hereinabove,researchers have determined that new or unexpected stimuli triggerinvoluntary responses, and the more bored or unfocused we are, the moresusceptible we are to these surprises. Also discussed above is thephenomenon of computer users performing search tasks, such that the moretheir attention is directed towards the periphery of their desiredfocus, the less they focus on the middle of their screens or themeaningful target. Imagine a warning light goes off on the on theinstrument panel accompanied by an audible warning and a thumping onyour right foot. Your natural impulse may be to look first at the lightthen possibly towards the floor until you collect your thoughts and bythen, based on studies, the prospect of overreacting is high. All thiswhen your attention should be outward on the car in front of you whichrepresents an imminent collision. We've also learned that new, movingand looming objects command attention and that the onset of motiontriggers overriding or urgent attention, possibly tapping the survivalinstinct, and also that changes in color can capture attention. Butinterpreting this as a potential solution is overlooked by ITS'engineers. We have a long and effective history of putting brake lightsin prominent locations on vehicles that might stop quickly in front ofus. It works. Perhaps a more natural and less distractive solution wouldbe to utilize rear-facing video displays on the vehicles in front ofus—as taught by the present invention—to provide color and graphictransitions for ‘following too close’ with more intense warnings orwarnings with more impact (supported by the audible cues) upon moreimminent potential collisions. Such a warning would audibly alert adriver to a situation which would be supported by directing his visualattention precisely where it should be to avoid an accident. This wouldbe enabled by a similar proximity technology that ITS is proposing, thenadding a returning wireless signal to the leading vehicle.

Upon full implementation, the present invention represents a moreeffective solution to the ITS proposed collision avoidance and‘following too close’ visual warning since it provides a means totrigger and present attention-grabbing color and light changesprominently on the aft surfaces of moving objects which are in certainmodes designed to capture the attention of the operators of followingmoving objects. It is the intent of the present invention to facilitatenumerous such novel safety solutions and these are further explained inthe subsequent text.

2) The U.S. Emergency Alert System (EAS) was designed by the FederalCommunications Commission so that important emergency information couldbe sent quickly to targeted specific areas. EAS alerts not onlybroadcast media but also cable television, satellite, pagers and newforms of digital technology such as Direct Broadcast Satellite, HighDefinition Television, and Video Dial Tone. FCC rules have requiredbroadcasters to monitor at least two independent sources for emergencyinformation, ensuring that it is received and delivered to viewers andlisteners in a timely manner. However, technology has moved on. Today,significant new methods are available to improve the capabilities of thepresent EAS. Satellites can be used to deliver EAS messages withinseconds with high available levels of security without the geographicallimitations of today's EAS. The Internet is a further impact-worthytechnology since it offers redundant or back-up path communication withvaluable follow-up capabilities. However, a private study on EASeffectiveness, completed in 2002, identifies three main concernspreventing EAS from becoming a truly effective system. One is that thereis no concerted government or industry effort that combines EAS andother alerting techniques with existing and new technologies such aswired and wireless Internet, cell phones, PDAs and pagers to form acombined and seamless warning system. An FCC Report from the same periodallocated increased numbers of EAS event and location codes so thatlocal emergency managers and law enforcement officials could plan vastlyimproved local emergency public information warnings. Those new codes,according to the report, could lead to valuable information displaysthat are not currently connected to the EAS, such as changeable highwaymessage signs. Every state, county, part of a county, and offshore(marine) area, has a specific number and hundreds of allocated numbersare unused. These could effectively identify unique areas or zones forhazardous weather conditions, nuclear power plants, military bases,neighborhoods or even groups of individuals such as police,firefighters, FEMA or other personnel, provided that the equipment is inplace to facilitate those communications.

One aspect of the current invention is that any moving object soequipped becomes, in fact, a rolling billboard, well suited todelivering location-sensitive, real time information to other movingobjects within the area. Weather information such as flash flood,tornado or hurricane warnings or on the spot highway information such astraffic conditions, detours, road-out, or turn-back situations.

3) In a similar effort, Motorola recently signed a contract with TheMichigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) for what Motorola calls a“Wireless Super Highway” program. The project represents an initialdeployment of a wireless network aimed at supporting the previouslymentioned U.S. Government Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII)initiative. Motorola and the State of Michigan are exploring ways toestablish a roadside network that can reduce accidents and roadcongestion by wirelessly connecting vehicles to the roadside and toother vehicles. MDOT is helping to fund the deployment of Motorola'ssystem in Southfield, Mich., as part of the State's ongoing investmentin real-world testing of practical Vehicle Infrastructure Integrationapplications. MDOT is also supporting the research and developmentefforts of private sector firms as well as Original EquipmentManufacturers. Motorola's vision of wireless future roadways includes:vehicles that could detect potholes, ice-patches or other road hazards,then wirelessly transmit that information to other nearby vehicles sothat they can avoid the hazard; and a panic brake alert application thatcan operate in foggy conditions and in which trailing vehicles couldreceive an in-vehicle alert recommending they brake immediately.Government and private industry projects like these could share, utilizeand benefit from the present invention because its parallel developmentand mass-market deployment will be driven by private investment incommercial advertising and in the development of personal mediaplatforms that promise new incomes to consumers or the equivalent of newproduction vehicles that are less costly to operate.

Integration

We see an advertising industry in relative disarray, desperate todevelop new platforms in the aftermath of falling numbers for old media(like TV) while chasing after the new ones (cell phones and iPods) likegadget freaks at the local Best Buy. All the while the solution has beenstaring them in the face: capture consumers on their drives to and fromwork each day. This is perhaps the “4th screen”: a unique media platformtotally dedicated to the display of ads. For a truly dedicated platform,however, integration must occur at a variety of levels:

1) Advertising. Advertisers can start by cleaning up their own act by a)electronically developing a new creative alliance with the public and byconnecting their creatives and managers to that pipeline, and b)incorporating distribution, measurement, consumer feedback, trackingconsumer engagement, content delivery accountability and compensationinto a single automated system.

2) Manufacturing. As previously explained, the technology exists todayto fully implement the present invention. Making it cost effectiverequires the acceleration and integration of manufacturing processesappropriate to the higher volume production of OLED displays to ensureeven lower costs and permit mass-market installations on moving objectsacross the board, industry wide. Even here, proper integration must bethoughtful and paramount. In terms of traditional components, thepresent invention has the capacity either to replace or to incorporateinto a single revenue-producing part for automated manufacture thefollowing items from standard automotive production: tail lights, turnsignals, brake lights, back up lights, license plate light and sidemarker lamps including their molded/metalized plastic housings,reflectors, lenses, bulbs (or LEDs), gaskets and connector seals (2 perside), center mount stop lights, vehicle brand and model logos orgraphics with attach hardware; panel finishes with decorative trimsincluding primers, surface preparation, finish painting, molding orplating; license plate recess structures and lamp mount assemblies,attach points and frames; and, finally, the independent stamping,painting and distribution of license plates and plate frames togetherwith annual DMV registration sticker production, distribution andconsumer attachment, together with all overhead, shipping, assembly anddirect labor related thereto. How nice to be able replace all that witha single part that not only launches an industry, but puts money backinto a new car owner's pockets in an age of skyrocketing fuel costs.

3) Government. As previously discussed, there are numerous programswhere development of the present invention can enhance or enable bettersolutions to current government programs. Of greater importance isgovernment participation on proposed standards, rulemaking, legislationand compliance. It is in the best interests of all concerned that theuse of the present invention as a rich, mobile communications resourceis exploited beyond mere marketing. It should be developed, from theoutset, as a highway safety system in its own right by coordinating theinterests of such government agencies as the National Highway TrafficSafety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Highway Administration(FHWA), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration(NTIA), the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA),the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NationalWeather Service (NWS), and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics(BTS), as well as other international agencies and commissions. Thisensures commerce and system compatibility across the board and acrossborders, in terms of highway signage, hazard and weather warnings,vehicle identification and signage, vehicle lighting and safety systemsand public service announcement and alert networks such as the EAS, toname but a few. For the same reasons, the U.S. Armed Forces may need tobe peripherally involved. The coordination of state and local agenciesto incorporate standards for police, firefighters and similar firstresponders as part of a versatile and failsafe mobile communicationssystem is just as important as the involvement of the FederalGovernment. A tall order, but considerably simpler than reaching thesame levels of consensus and production readiness as were necessary inareas such as vehicle standards for crashworthiness, fuel economy andemissions.

4) Financial. The integration of financial interests is critical togetting a project of this magnitude launched. Commercial advertising isclearly the financial driver so it is reasonable to expect significantinvestment, directly or indirectly from the world of large corporateadvertisers and their agencies along with companies having core stakesin communications, transportation or media. As is later explained,governments are likely to contribute to the development of segments theyfeel is in the best interest of the public or in areas that are in linewith their agency's charter, programs or objectives. A third leg ininvestment may come from the individual motor companies, who willappreciate that the sale of moving objects which can also generateincomes for their owners (and is therefore tantamount a product having alower cost of operations) is likely to gain favor with the consumer andthat competition could quickly drive acceptance of productsincorporating the present invention industry wide. A final leg ofsupport will come from one or more of the major communications oroutdoor advertising companies that will emerge as gatekeeper for thisnew platform. The real money will be in content Distribution andCompensation.

5) Compensation. The present invention introduces a novel and powerfulmeans to reward the entire driving population, from the beginningstudent driver to daily commuters; from carpools to commercial fleetoperators; and from the lowest income drivers to the wealthiest,delivering to all an ability to earn income as they sit in traffic, oralternatively, to lower their costs of transportation by allowing theuse of their personal assets in a profitable public forum. In terms ofmarket size for the present invention, the applicant envisions anorderly phase-in of video-equipped moving objects, with ultimate marketpenetration limited only by the total numbers of moving objects producedworldwide.

Compensation

There are certainly instances where the driving population has beenenlisted to promote or advertise products and services using theirpersonal vehicles for profit. These have been limited in scope andtechnology, are costly, relatively inconvenient and generallyinconsistent with average consumer lifestyles. The method involvespaying drivers to wrap their personal cars in ads touting products suchas ice cream, juice bars or Internet services. The driver's job issimple: drive to and from work, pick up the kids, run errands—and bewilling to operate as a traveling billboard. Some companies offerdrivers the free use of a new ad-wrapped car, while other drivers arepaid $300 to $400 a month to allow the wrapping on their own vehicles.Critics call it another example of creeping—and creepy—commercialism. Asmentioned previously, taxi owners in some major cities are being allowedto place ads on the outside of their cabs. Leasing ad space in this wayprovides taxi owners and drivers with additional revenue which helpsthem offset the costs of adding wheelchair-accessible vehicles andsimilar mandated requirements. Cab owners and the drivers who lease themsplit revenues from the advertising, which has been estimated at around$400 per car per month.

As will be seen in a later description of the present invention,registered owners of appropriately equipped moving objects may besimilarly compensated, but through a novel combination of private andpublic entities which control content and monitor compensation, operateautomated accountability systems and integrate multiple media resources,financial partnerships and transportation support industries.Ironically, the huge revenues and personal incomes promised by thepresent invention are made possible by the very thing that causesmillions of drivers each day to waste their precious time and money:traffic congestion.

Conclusion

Madison Avenue, up to now, has been reactive instead of proactive. Ithires other entities to follow up after the fact to determine whether ornot their content was actually delivered, and if it was, whether or notit went to the right parties. It has no effective procedures in placefor judging ad “performance” (other than post analysis assumptions bycreatives and the evaluation of sales) to determine what, if anything,the public thinks about the content they believe was delivered. MadisonAvenue is about creative guesswork. It's about “following” mediatechnologies rather than leading them. It would be extraordinarilyadvantageous for marketers to have a channel through which consumerscould actively or even passively inform advertisers about the thingsthey truly want to see and hear, for advertisers to fill those channelswith content about products and services consumers really want and need,and to provide this content at a time and place of the consumer'schoosing. For the first time in advertising history, the presentinvention enables a self-monitoring mobile network in which consumerscan request specific content; view it, hear it, accept, reject or praiseit; provide immediate and direct feedback on that content to thecreatives and managers involved; and allow those creatives to modify andresubmit that content for distribution. Marketers are able to receivereal time confirmation on that distribution along with priceless data onits engagement, effectiveness and acceptance, and the presenters of thatcontent are financially rewarded on a per ad, per screen basis for theuse of their platforms just as though they were partners in the sameindustry, which they are.

The applicant is unaware of the existence of any commercially-viablesystem capable of generating revenue for the general driving populationthrough the display of targeted or hyper-relevant video advertising onmoving objects which is governed and controlled by stored databaseprofiles in other moving objects. Nor is the applicant aware of anysingle, closed-loop ad platform which allows consumers to requestspecific kinds of content, to distribute that content, to confirmdelivery of that content, to measure its effectiveness, to account forand compensate such deliveries, and to create new content based upondirect consumer feedback and confirmed in-field performance. The presentinvention offers a unique opportunity to turn around the status quo inthe world of advertising. It promises new channels of communication withconsumers, new sources of public and private capital for investment plussignificant ROI with shared revenue to the driving population. Itfurther promises the alignment of multiple essential industries for themanufacture of unique video displays, the improvement of moving objectsafety and cost effectiveness, the environmental clean up oftransportation corridors and the sharing of just compensation with theowners and operators of a new kind of mobile communications andadvertising platform.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention describes a system, apparatus and method forobtaining revenue through the display of either conventional, targetedor hyper-relevant advertising on moving objects which receive, store,poll and extract data to present ads and other types of informationbased on the time of day, their location and their movements relative toother objects in a specific environment, and where data and informationstored in moving or mobile objects within that environment can betransmitted between said objects, or to stationary objects where it isthen received, polled, extracted and used to enable and control suchdisplays for which the owners of those objects are then compensated. Aproposed embodiment describes the development, production, deploymentand operation of an integrated audio/video and data communicationssystem capable of presenting hyper-relevant commercial advertising withsynchronized audio, real time road, weather and emergency alerts,personal, fleet or government communications, mobile signage as well asvehicle branding, illumination and safety systems on and between movingobjects. The business model portion describes a means for businessdevelopment, technological adoption, funding, rulemaking, certification,media creation, content distribution, consumer utilization anduser/owner operations and compensation. The apparatus section definesthe placement of lightweight video displays on or integral to the bodypanels, exterior finishes and/or glazing of both moving and stationaryobjects with an electronic means for the wireless transmission ofstored, encoded user profiles containing the ad viewing preferences forthe occupants of one moving object, to the receiving system in anothermoving or fixed object. The system enables the display of hyper-relevantad content with synchronized remote audio, personal messaging and publicservice alerts on surrounding objects and provides for the real-timelogging and later downloading of data to confirm communications andcontent deliveries between objects, track and measure consumerengagement, verify consumer's direct responses to ad viewings withaccountability systems for moving object owner/operator JustCompensation. The invention further enables the widespread,non-invasive, profile-driven, ad hoc collection of privacy-compliantdata for research purposes relating to consumer movements, travelpatterns, buying habits, interests, needs and preferences.

The present invention also defines a high-volume production solution inwhich data and information contained in objects moving within theenvironment can be transmitted, received, polled, extracted and used tocontrol or modify the audio and video output on viewed moving objectsbased on the viewer's specific interests, preferences, habits and needs,the needs or conditions of the environment or the requirements of thosewho are responsible to monitor safe and secure movements within it. Itfurther describes a means for the low cost conversion of productionvehicles so they can display video and transmit synchronized audio toother vehicles. Considerations regarding the apparatus involve theplacement of video displays on or integral to the body panels ofexisting production vehicles, exterior finishes and/or glazing with anelectronic means for receiving, storing, queuing and displaying adcontent, and for the wireless transmission of stored audio or audiocodes to a viewing vehicle's internal sound system. The presentinvention also includes a method for compensating the owners of movingobjects for the use of their assets as mobile advertising andcommunications platforms and further defines a means to generate revenuefrom the ad hoc collection of hyper-relevant data through the deploymentand use of those platforms.

By allowing an object to learn a little about your personal history,background and experiences, together with a little information aboutyour short or long term goals, needs or desires and by then grantingthat object—whether the object is small enough to carry in a pocket orpurse or large enough to ride in—permission to passively convey thatinformation to other nearby objects at certain times and places in yourlife, you permit those other objects to interact with you or with yourown object and your own life in a way in which the net experience canenhance, enrich or inform. Focusing for the moment on a singleembodiment of the invention—and on a moving object which is large enoughfor people to ride in—one can envision a scenario in which an individual(or a group of individuals) riding in such a moving object which, asjust suggested, possesses some information about the people it iscarrying—for example, a little about “who they are” and “what theywant”—and in which that object can transmit that information to othernearby objects (whether those objects are mobile or fixed). Once thosenearby objects receive and process that transmission, they can respondby presenting very special information of significant value to theindividuals riding in the first object. Imagine, in the above scenario,an individual seated in such a land-based moving object who is viewingthe road ahead. Let's assume he is also controlling or guiding hismoving object so his eyes are where they are supposed to be: on the roadand on any moving objects in his path. Assume the object in which he isriding now transmits unique information concerning his personalinterests, needs, habits, or experiences, then passively, but withoutdisclosing any confidential information, additionally transmits generaldata about who he is (age, sex, marital status, educational level,occupation, number of children, area of residence, etc.) combined with alittle information about the moving object in which he is riding and itsrecent movements, to another object or objects nearby. If theinformation is received by a similarly equipped moving object, thatobject can now process that information and draw from an internallibrary of stored data, data that is of unique interest or ofsignificant value to the individual who is in another object which isfollowing and watching. For example, if data stored in the library of amoving object ahead is converted into a digital signal containing audioinformation and is transmitted wirelessly to a moving object that isfollowing, then the individual who is inside the following object can beimmersed in audible sounds that are of genuine interest and value to theindividual(s) inside. If that library data is processed into videoinformation and is then delivered to a video display positionedprominently on rear portions of the moving object ahead, then theindividual seated at the controls of the following object can also seeimages displayed on the object ahead of him which can be furthersynchronized to the audio information, all of which is derived from theinformation transmitted from his own moving object, and which istherefore of great personal interest or value. Thus, a set of carefullyprepared preferences in the form of personal information transmittedfrom one moving object to another, or to fixed objects nearby, can—whencombined with data relating to the environment and the movement of theobjects within it—trigger or enable many forms of audio visual imagerythat can address the previously mentioned twelve objectives incommercial advertising. What if such transmitted and displayed audio andvisual information is not merely based on a person's preferences andmoving objects, but on the conditions of the surrounding environmentitself? Once again, in an independently controlled, land-based movingobject—one which might be negotiating a highway or following electronicguideways or tracks—if there were a serious slowing or blockage of othermoving objects or a hazardous condition ahead, that information could bereceived by one or more such moving objects and could then besimultaneously and prominently displayed on those other moving objectsor on nearby stationary objects, thereby alerting all occupants andobservers to any local and potentially serious conditions. Such displaysmight simultaneously alert the operators of moving objects in foggyconditions to the slowing of multiple vehicles some distance ahead, tothe presence of detours, one-way traffic, icy surfaces, flash floodingor tornados, or to conditions such as landslides, a bridge out orextended construction. One way to do this is by displaying a graphic andpictorial message on the display surfaces of the moving objectimmediately ahead. In one such example, information triggering such anaudio or visual presentation might come from a wireless signal targetinga specific geographical point or route, or from a broader signal thatmight blanket an entire town or part of a city. Triggering informationcould also come from previously downloaded instructions or from apreprogrammed internal resource library able to interact with theInternet or with the navigational system of an individual moving object.Thus, at a predetermined time and place during its travels, movingobjects could display critical information, alerts or warnings either toor upon other moving or fixed objects in the environment which couldthen be viewed by the occupants of those moving objects or byindividuals in the immediate area (such as pedestrians or foot traffic)or by other means (such as traffic monitoring cameras) capable ofviewing such moving objects from remote locations. Although this latterkind of audio visual presentation might at first seem similar toon-board GPS navigation systems, which place prerecorded audio/visualcontent on displays inside a moving object, the visual content of thepresent invention is displayed on the outer surfaces of moving objectsor on nearby fixed objects—generally at eye level or within clear lineof sight of the moving object's operator as in the case of a land-basedvehicle—and is therefore generally intended for viewing through thewindows of another moving object or from outside of a moving object.Thus, the location of the display of the present invention can beconsiderably more effective and a great deal safer than displays locatedalong a roadside or on the interior of a moving object, becauseoperators do not need to take their eyes off the other objects moving intheir paths to focus on the interior of their conveyance or to focus andtrack signage, illumination or warnings that are stationary at roadside.This is the reason we put brake lights on the moving vehicles in frontof us, and not on a warning light on our vehicle's instrument panel.Moreover, such video presentations are timely and reflective ofimmediate conditions since they can be electronically updated, deployed,triggered and displayed instantly and in real time wherever there areappropriately equipped moving objects. Further, when such images orsounds are generated using interactive onboard database libraries theycan be modified in real time to incorporate the needs andcharacteristics of both the moving objects and their operators.Importantly, all such content is monitored for safe and timelypresentation because all delivery is ultimately controlled by the speedsand relative motions between moving objects themselves, the specificlocations of those objects in the environment and the condition of theenvironment itself.

If moving objects are able to exchange data sufficient to enableconventional, targeted or hyper-relevant audio/video commercialadvertising and time-sensitive, location-specific communications, thenthey can also display highly personalized messages and personaladvertising, enable personal sponsorships, assist in law enforcement oremergency operations, produce a unique means for the branding of movingobjects and offer many exciting opportunities for the lighting,operating and safety systems of moving objects and for their basicregistration and identification. For example, a land-based moving objectmight display the name or logo of its owner's favorite sports team orpolitical candidate, as a kind of “electronic bumper sticker”. Anotherowner might display a promotion or an ad for his own small business anddo it at precise times of the day or night and in meaningful venues,such as his home neighborhood or business or university campuses. Byadding a means for law enforcement to communicate with moving objectsand a method for the owners of mobile objects to communicate with theirown property, lost, stolen or speeding moving objects would be able toannounce their presence and alert others in the vicinity. Importantly,such displays will enable the manufacturers of moving objects toincorporate and periodically change the name, branding, functionaldesigns or styling of their moving objects simply by modifying theelectronic data controlling the content of its default display. Anothersignificant improvement will come with the introduction of anall-electronic system for the registration and licensing of movingobjects. The display's ability to present powerful, well illuminatedexternal graphics and nomenclature on moving objects and to furtherencrypt and link such data electronically to the moving object itselfwill result in a system where all moving objects, upon acquisition by anowner, will immediately be programmed to display identifying numbers(i.e., license plates) properly and prominently in accordance with setstandards and such content would be updated each year if annualregistrations are required. All such electronic procedures would beencrypted and documented to prevent tampering or hacking withoutotherwise triggering companion regulatory monitoring systems. One cansee that such a system, applied again in the area of land-based roadvehicles, could eventually eliminate the need for the manufacture,distribution, installation, maintenance, changing and/or replacement ofvehicle license plates altogether. If such a system were properly andsecurely designed it could also prevent the theft and false use of suchvehicle identification. Just as significantly, annual DMV registrationscould be conducted solely online and paid registrations would be sentelectronically via the Internet directly to vehicles themselves,eliminating the cumbersome process of printing, distributing andinstalling new registration stickers each year. However, by far thegreatest benefit to the use of this invention is that it allows theoperators of moving objects to keep their eyes, their focus and theirattention on the other moving objects in play around them, and not onthe ever-increasing array of brightly-animated billboards, roadsidesignage and other distractions competing for their visual attention. Infact, the present invention offers the distinct possibility of cleaningup the landscape by enabling significant reductions—and quite possiblythe eventual elimination altogether of conventional signage andadvertising in high traffic environments.

Using today's off-the-shelf technology, one could easily assemble anoperating demonstrator of the described invention. However, it might bemore expensive than necessary and would certainly lack the integration,legislation and marketability vital to inaugurating such an ambitiousand widespread program. To succeed, such an effort is likely to requirean international consensus in, but not limited to, such areas asproposed rulemaking, legislation, testing, compliance, design,production and performance, in the realm of product development; thecoordination of multiple national interests in terms of highway, airwayor waterway traffic management, safety and infrastructures; generaltelecommunications, telematics and technology adoption as well as theintegration of national, state and local environmental and weatherservices, to name but a few. Of equal importance are standards andpractices for content, content display, delivery, distribution,engagement tracking, accountability and finance in the areas ofadvertising, and also coordinated developments in data processing,displays, telematics, body panels and glazing for the mass marketproduction of moving objects on the international manufacturing side.None of this will happen without money and clear incentives to generateappropriate capital and cash flows to make this invention a commercialreality. It is therefore another prime objective of this invention todemonstrate not merely a capable and operable systems technology, butadditionally a general business model designed to stimulate capitalinvestment, the application of development funds, appropriate investmentin R&D and the capital equipment necessary to produce cost-effective endproducts, the proper monitoring and effective use of those products orservices and finally to foster a means and enable a system tofinancially reward all who participate, from the advertisers andagencies who will pay to use the invention's ad platform to themanufacturers of moving objects that will introduce what will be theequivalent of more cost-efficient moving objects as the result ofincorporating this invention to the governments who will assure betterand safer public services through the adoption of this invention to thenew entity(ies) that will profit through the distribution of contentthrough this invention to the many transportation support industrieswhich, through partnerships, will enable fuel, insurance and otherincentives to stimulate acceptance of this invention and, perhaps mostimportantly, to the numerous fleet, business and general mobilepopulation users who will ultimately offer up their private and personalmoving objects to be used as public communications and advertisingplatforms for profit.

Commercial advertisers will continue to deal with selected ad agenciesand will develop creative content in the same ways as they do today, butthey will do it under the new industry standards and practices definedunder the present invention. Content producers will continue to workwith their ad agencies, creating end products appropriate to theselected media, then media buyers will purchase ad slots and schedulecontent, but it will be done over the Internet. Submitted content willbe first reviewed for conformance to standards and practices andtechnical requirements, and then encoded for time, venue, and relativepriority over other scheduled ads or content types. Once content isencoded, the best method for distribution is determined (cable,satellite, wireless), fees are attached, and the scheduled content isuploaded to the network. Distribution methods are discussed in thedrawings, but in practice, final method for delivery may depend on theinfrastructure available in the various markets.

Law enforcement and military and government-related public servicecontent is periodically uploaded in a similar fashion, starting withquality and conformance standards for graphic content, followed bysimilar time, venue, and priority encoding over other types of content.Typically, government or public service content will have a displaypriority over ads. The triggering of public service alerts is criticaland is sometimes accomplished through external systems. In the case ofthe roadwork alert which saved mom from a delay in her trip, genericaudio and visual content was pre-loaded into her hard drive (perhaps atthe factory) while actual triggering for the event was accomplished byan on-board GPS input having time and location constraints (a movingobject entering a defined area at a certain time of day) or through alocalized broadcast radio signal.

Fleet and business users such as taxicabs, delivery vans, or car rentalagencies, or even large commercial carriers and government-owned andoperated fleets such as U.S. Postal Service vehicles or GSA carpoolswill submit specialized content under their fleet contracts. Aftersimilar approvals and scheduling, fleet and government content isuploaded via the Internet and is distributed to fleet parking ormaintenance garages and storage areas in the same way as family,consumer, and commercial advertiser content is distributed in business,university, or mall parking garages.

It is anticipated under the present invention that law enforcement, firedepartments, and perhaps even military users would be granted uniqueaccess, enabling these users to override any ongoing, in-field contentdisplays in the interests of public safety. For example, if police in aland-based or airborne moving object were able to “take possession” ofthe video display on the exterior of a land-based moving object which ispresumed to be lost or stolen, is involved in a car chase, or is posingsome immediate hazard or threat to others or to the environment, suchpossession could release prerecorded data from the hard drive in thatmoving object—and in other nearby moving objects—so that visual warningsand other types of displays could appear prominently and simultaneouslyon a multitude of moving or stationary objects within the area.

The applicant envisions that, except in rare cases, all users would payfor the right, privilege, and opportunity to distribute content usingthe present invention and that a portion of these payments, afterexpenses, will be paid to the individual owners or operators of thevarious moving or stationary objects that comprise the ad platform andwere involved in the delivery of that particular content. The presentinvention introduces an integral system of electronic accountability toassure this.

General consumers will pay for the distribution of their own ads andpersonal messages, even when such displays are on their own movingobjects, although such personal use will likely be priced at a discount.Of course, such personal use reduces the opportunity for these users toearn greater revenue by displaying content for big brand advertisersover their own.

Professional advertisers will pay a premium to use the system,especially during prime hours and venues. This parallels establishednorms in the industry which are based upon reaching specific markets atcertain times of the day and in specific locations delivering a certainnumber of impressions to a preferred demographic. With the presentinvention, fees charged will be based on the going rates for the mediatype, content, and application, but with payments based only ondeliveries that are electronically confirmed.

Government and public service users may have content distributed underspecial contracts or circumstances and such contracts might possibly usepublic funds.

Financially, the present invention is a little like offering stock in apublic company. The company's shareholders own the moving objects—itscommunications platform—which is used from time to time to distributethe company's products. A shareholder's financial investment comesthrough his purchase, maintenance, and operation of his owntransportation. His return on investment (ROI) comes in the form of apayment for services rendered or as a dividend based on the company'sperformance. The more a shareholder invests in the company—buying andusing more moving objects or by using them more often—the greater hisROI. The larger the number of shareholders, the bigger the company'sdistribution network and the greater its potential for revenue.

However, earlier investment will be required from a number of resources.Seed money from a coalition of key entities who are those most likely tobenefit from the new platform is likely to occur first. The advertisingindustry has the driving incentive and is the long term beneficiary;thus, early investment may be from the more entrepreneurial contentproducers, media buyers, and ad agencies, along with their largecorporate clients, and finally the traditional competing major mediaplatforms (television, Internet and outdoor). Next, the Federal andlocal governments are investment candidates, principally in supportingR&D, legislation, and in the operational areas of highway trafficsafety, and public communications. Finally, the manufacturers of movingobjects will invest in their own competitive design and developmentefforts together with investment from government and transportationsupport industries such as petroleum, insurance, banking, computing,electronics, and telecommunications, along with State Department ofTransportation Agencies and others.

The kinds of moving objects that will launch the system in a land-basedembodiment are likely to fall into roughly four initial categories: 1)New Vehicle Production; 2) Pre Existing Vehicles (or aftermarketinstallations); 3) Vehicle Conversions (the replacement of existing bodypanels such as rear deck lids or doors on SUVs, minivans, or stationwagons and truck tailgates) with their original body panels converted toaccept the appropriate display technologies; and 4) Modular “add-on”packages suitable for use on trucks, trailers, RV's, motor homes, and onvery old or unusual types of vehicles.

1) New Vehicle Production in a preferred embodiment, a land-based movingobject such as an automobile will contain a small electronics packagethat will interface with other on-board equipment such as GPSnavigation, audio entertainment, and perhaps newer telematics systems,if available. This package will include a transmitter, which sends awireless encoded signal with information on the vehicle type and VIN (orcomparable identifying information) along with encoded user profiles oruser codes which define the preferences and personal interests for eachoccupant selected, to moving object receivers or fixed object receiverswithin range. Signals may be broadcast in omnidirectional patterns,depending on the application, but in cases involving motor vehicleapplications in traffic, such signals are most likely to be transmittedin a generally forward-looking pattern having a horizontal and verticalspread of from 15 to 30 degrees or that typically illuminatedhorizontally by a motor vehicle's headlamps. This spread may ultimatelybe governed by rulemaking, and could further be automatically adjustedby local road, personal preferences, or traffic conditions. Theelectronics package will include, on each vehicle, an antenna to receivesuch signals, a motion sensor to measure the speed of the receivingvehicle, a rear-looking proximity sensor to measure the closing speedsof any following vehicle(s), and a decoder to process the signalstransmitted from such vehicles. The package will contain antennas forreceiving and transmitting information wirelessly from network accesspoints (NAPs), an upload/download transceiver, a central processor, anda hard drive for storing all information received that is downloadedfrom a network or is logged in the field as a result ofintercommunication between various moving objects. When signals arereceived from similarly equipped nearby vehicles, they are typically inthe form of user codes which define the nature of that vehicle'soccupants along with their content preferences (as in the case ofhyper-relevant advertising) together with information on the vehicleitself relating to a specific VIN and including specifications on thephysical characteristics of that particular moving object. In mostcases, these requests are used to poll the onboard hard drive in aviewed (or displaying) vehicle and to then queue the necessary contentfor a video display based on predetermined delivery protocols. Specificinstructions governing the delivery of content are encoded with thatcontent. Content can be stored on board a viewed vehicle, a viewingvehicle, or on both. Video content stored on a viewed (display) vehicleis normally queued and displayed from that vehicle's self contained harddrive storage medium. However, video content that is queued from storagein a viewing vehicle must be wirelessly transmitted to the viewed(display) vehicle for presentation on that vehicle's external displaymeans (unless it is intended for an in-vehicle display). By contrast,audio content queued from storage in a viewed (display) vehicle must betransmitted wirelessly to the viewing vehicle for reproduction andplayback over its internal sound system. Thus, in practice, and to avoidunnecessary short range transmissions of audio and video content, thesystem will first choose to store all content in all moving objects sothat only user/content codes are transmitted between vehicles. In thisway the video content itself is never transmitted to another vehicle,but is queued and displayed solely within the viewed (display) vehicle'ssystem. At the same time, any audio content related to that display ofvideo is queued, synchronized and released for audio reproduction overthe internal sound system of the viewing vehicle. All such presentationsare controlled by the motion and proximities of the moving vehiclesinvolved, their relative speeds, their locations and relative positions,the time of day, and a variety of other factors bearing on subsequentsignals received from the viewing vehicles, from other vehicles, andfrom the environment, and those generated by the presenting vehicleitself.

2) Pre Existing Vehicles are those that have been manufactured prior toavailability of the present invention, or simply those without theinvention; however, owners or users should be able to purchase, lease,or otherwise add versions of the New Vehicle Production package to suchmoving objects. Aftermarket packages do not need to add the videodisplay portion of the technology unless they wish to earn money fromthe display of content. If they wish to view hyper-relevant contentand/or control what they see and hear from moving objects using the fulltechnology, they can buy and install a stripped-down version of the fullproduction system. Such an aftermarket version would have the ability toreceive, process, store, encode, and transmit data including contentrequests, VIN data, and user/occupant profiles or user codes. It wouldalso have the ability to log content requests, information relating tothe content presented by other vehicles, and its owner's responses toviewed content. All of this information remains stored on the hard driveof any Pre Existing Vehicle for later downloading to the network.

3) Vehicle Conversions will involve installations of a New VehicleProduction package, but on a panel by panel basis in terms of the videodisplay. Such installations are perfect for fleet or limited productionapplications like taxis or commercial vans, particularly those whichoperate in high-density traffic areas. The most cost effective way toimplement such conversions is to isolate the display portion of thetechnology to body components which are easily removable or replaceable,and often set into their own easily serviceable shock mitigationmountings such as the rear hatches of SUVs or minivans, truck tailgates,and doors or trunk lids of passenger cars. The electronics package,proximity sensors, antennas, receivers, and transmitters can be easilyintegrated into existing body structures. Indeed, such conversions forcity transit and taxi fleets are anticipated as a form of beta-test andpreproduction ramp-up and as market test deployments of the presentinvention.

4) Modular “add-on” packages which offer full system capability(proximity and motion sensing, data transmission, processing and storageas well as displays) that can be “bolted-on” to large, unusual or oldertypes of vehicles to allow their owners revenue generating potential areeasily managed. Such applications would be for trucks and busses, oreven large or medium sized fixed roadside signage or billboards underthe right circumstances. Imagine a full-sized SEARS or WALMARTtruck-trailer rig carrying large panel displays with the company logo,which is also able to read the specific preferences and shoppinginterests of passing or surrounding motorists and then instantly queueand display products of genuine interest to them.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a systemand method for obtaining revenue through the display of advertisingcontent and other types of audio/video information on the exteriorsurfaces of mobile objects which can receive, store, contain, poll,extract and use information for this purpose which has been transmittedfrom other fixed or mobile objects within its vicinity.

It is another object of the present invention to allow data andinformation which is stored in one mobile object to be transmitted toanother mobile or fixed object in the environment where that data isthen received, polled, extracted and used to control the display of adcontent or other types of information on the surfaces of such otherobjects.

It is a further object of the present invention to display and permitthe viewing of such displays at precise times of the day and in exactinggeo-locations, further governed by the relative speeds, angles,proximities or movements of other moving or stationary objects withinthe environment.

It is another object of the present invention to control the visualdisplays on moving objects which are in motion so that such displays arenot distractive to the process of operating moving objects within theimmediate vicinity.

It is yet another general object of the present invention to provide ameans for the owners of such mobile or fixed objects to be compensatedfor the use of their property as it relates to the above referencedsystem.

It is yet another general object of the present invention to permit thewidespread use of personal vehicles for revenue producing activity.

It is yet another general object of the present invention to compensateowners and operators of moving objects for the confirmed use of theirassets.

It is yet another general object of the present invention to convertdrivers' wasted time and money in traffic into incomes, therebyincreasing the tax base.

It is yet another general object of the present invention to make newvehicle ownership and/or operation virtually cost free.

It is yet another general object of the present invention to stimulatethe earlier consumer adoption of alternate energy vehicles byincorporating into them the revenue-generating advantages of the presentinvention.

It is a further general object of the present invention to allowgovernment agencies, or those responsible for the safe and proper use ofsuch moving objects, to override the display of advertising or lowerpriority utilization of the invention to facilitate communications whichmay be of greater importance in terms of public safety and well being.

It is another object of the present invention to allow advertisers tosubmit ad content together with delivery information for approval andsubsequent distribution to moving objects.

It is a further object of the present invention to allow the generaldriving population to select the kinds of advertising content it wouldlike to view and display, and to further enter into contracts definingtheir rights and responsibilities to use that content, and to receivecompensation for such use.

It is another general object of the present invention to facilitate anonline community through which users of the present invention canregister their moving objects, establish memberships and submit userprofiles containing their personal preferences and user criteria.

It is yet another object of the present invention to allow fleet andgovernment users of moving objects to use the present invention todetermine the kinds of advertising content or other types of informationthey would like to view and display, and to enter into contractsdefining their fees and compensation for such use.

It is a another object of the present invention to facilitate a systemin which users can identify “who they are” and “what they want” and thenbe rewarded for providing that information by being able to control whatthey see and hear with respect to ad content that is presented to them.

It is another object of the present invention to permit the distributionof advertising or sponsorship content, private or personal content andpublic service or emergency content directly and simultaneously tomultiple moving objects where it can be stored, retrieved and displayedupon demand.

It is a further object of the present invention to allow content to beencoded for unique deliveries (such as for time and place, underspecific conditions and circumstances or to specific demographics) andto enable contracts with clients, customers and entities who wish to payfor such encoding.

It is a further object of the present invention to allow users torequest that specific kinds of content be displayed on their own or onother moving objects on a predetermined or spontaneous basis, and tooptionally pay for that service.

It is still another object of the present invention to permit users todelete, or prevent the display of, certain kinds of content on movingobjects, on a predetermined or spontaneous, real-time basis, and tooptionally pay for that service.

It is another object of the present invention to enable the display ofadvertising and sponsored content on the exterior surfaces of movingobjects when such objects are parked or are non-moving and that suchcontent be related to the immediate surroundings and/or be controlled bythe presence of both pedestrians and handheld electronic devices.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a means tostore information and data relating to any delivered content requests,any “delete” requests or any “prevent” requests on board a moving objecttogether with a means for subsequently uploading that information forthe purpose of tracking, measurement, accounting and compensation.

It is yet another object of the present invention to enable thewireless, automated downloading of encoded user codes or profiles tomoving objects.

It is a further object of the present invention to enable the wireless,automated uploading of encoded public service content (such as publicalerts and weather warnings) together with venue-specific ortime-specific triggering criteria to the on-board storage devices ofmoving objects.

It is another object of the present invention to enable the wireless,automated downloading of encoded commercial ad content, together withencoded delivery information, to the on-board storage devices of movingobjects.

It is another object of the present invention to enable the wireless,manual uploading of encoded personal content by private citizens,together with encoded delivery information, directly to the on-boardstorage devices of moving objects from home or personal networks.

It is another object of the present invention to allow users tospontaneously request additional information, to purchase merchandise orotherwise respond to electronic offers and advertisements as they viewsuch content from or while operating moving objects.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a means forlogging and storing information on board a moving object relating to thedelivery of audio or video public service content, including contentrequests, and to provide for the later uploading of such information fortracking, engagement measurement, accounting, and compensation purposes.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a means forlogging, documenting and storing information on board a moving objectrelating to the delivery of audio or video advertising or sponsorshipcontent, or content requests, and to provide for the later uploading ofthat information to a network for tracking, engagement measurement,accounting, and compensation purposes.

It is a further general object of the present invention to provide ameans for logging, documenting and storing information on board a movingobject relating to the delivery of audio or video personal use content,and for the later uploading of that information to a network for thepurpose of tracking, engagement measurement, accounting, andcompensation.

It is a further object of the present invention to enable the display ofvideo content on the exterior surfaces of one's own moving object, suchcontent generated previously and stored, or created spontaneously inreal time (such as an instant personal text message), and optionally, toenable and cause the audio portion of that content to be synchronized tosaid video and wirelessly transmitted to another moving object for itsreception and listening.

It is another object of the present invention to enable a means for theowners of current production motor vehicles to easily andcost-effectively exchange certain of their motor vehicle's body panelsfor revenue-producing video display body panels which then permit themto be compensated for the use of their property as it relates to theabove referenced system.

It is another object of the present invention to enable thecost-effective fleet conversions of personal and commercial motorvehicles through the exchange of vehicle body panels and the addition ofelectronics to allow individuals or small business fleet owners toprofit from the use of their vehicles as multi-media communicationsplatforms.

It is a further object of the present invention to enable thesimultaneous uploading and downloading of information and content from anetwork to large numbers of parked or moving objects for the purpose ofupdating on-board libraries, or for the purposes of tracking, engagementmeasurement, accounting and compensation.

It is a another object of the present invention to enable the uploadingof information stored in moving objects relating to content, time,place, nature and trigger for any logged delivery, and to then processand to feedback that information to authorized government users,advertising agencies, advertisers or registered fleet, business orpersonal users for the purposes of tracking, engagement measurement,accounting, compensation or billing.

It is a further general object of the present invention to displayconventional, targeted or hyper-relevant advertising, public servicecontent and other types of information transmitted to moving objects onthe internal video displays of such moving objects.

It is a further general object of the present invention to displayconventional, targeted or hyper-relevant advertising content, publicservice content and other types of information on the internal videodisplays of moving objects with the presentation of said displaysgoverned and controlled by the speed, location, contents, time of day,proximity and nature of the moving object and of other nearby moving orstationary objects within an environment.

It is another general object of the present invention to permit theselling, scheduling and display of hyper-relevant advertising content,together with public service content, personal content and other typesof information, on video displays which are located on the interior ofmoving objects.

It is another object of the present invention to permit thedistribution, display and documentation of conventional, targeted orhyper-relevant advertising, public service content, personal content andother types of information, on video displays located on the interior ofmoving objects, and to financially compensate the owners or operatorsfor such display.

It is another object of the present invention to upload user codes whichhave been transmitted on an ad hoc basis between moving objects in thefield for the purpose of tracking consumer movements by VIN,demographics, time, place, interests and other factors, for the purposeof research, marketing and planning.

It is another object of the present invention to enable the sale of usercodes and information relating to the movements of consumers in thefield by VIN, demographics, time, place, interests and other factors forthe purpose of research, marketing and planning.

It is another object of the present invention to convert the adindustry's enthusiasm and its need for unique advertising platforms intocapital investment in said invention, thereby stimulating companioninvestment from private industry and government.

It is a further object of the present invention to use its ability togenerate incomes for the general driving population to stimulate furtherinvestment from industry and government.

It is another object of the present invention, through its ability togenerate incomes for the driving population, to leverage the competitiveinterests of manufacturers causing them to incorporate the inventioninto their high volume production of moving vehicles, said highervolumes reducing the costs for manufacture and making the product moreaccessible to the driving population.

It is a further object of the present invention to enable a systemwherein a moving object can detect and learn the traffic patterns andsignal sequences at highway intersections, convey that information toother moving objects, synchronize that information with said objects andthen calculate the time remaining at such locations within which contentcan be safely displayed.

It is a further object of the present invention to enable a system forthe geo-tracking of moving objects in a manner that will not violatecivil liberties, since tracking data cannot be lawfully generated in theabsence of a subpoena.

It is a further general object of the present invention to permit theuse of its video display(s) for entertainment purposes or for staticpresentations on moving objects when enabled by appropriate audio andvideo devices.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novelsystem for reducing the spacing between moving objects when such objectsare in stopped, or near-stopped modes, thereby conserving significantamounts of wasted city traffic lanes especially at traffic signals,intersections, on ramps and turning lanes.

It is a further general object of the present invention to allow lawenforcement to remotely override or take command of a moving object'sactive display to confirm moving object identification, highlight lostor stolen moving objects or to use a moving object as a mobile hazard,lighting or communications platform.

It is a another object of the present invention to electronicallydisplay moving object identification, licensing and registration at allappropriate times and to further allow the driving population, includinglaw enforcement, to electronically capture and record suchidentification upon demand.

It is a further object of the present invention to incorporate all ofthe normally required lighting, safety, branding, licensing andregistration systems, to the greatest extent possible, into the digitalvideo display(s) of future moving objects.

An aspect of the invention is a system, comprising: a first object; atransmitter in the first object; a second object; a receiver in thesecond object; and a profile comprising data regarding a user associatedwith the first object; wherein the profile or a subset of the profile istransmitted from the first object to the second object; wherein contentis presented to the first object; and wherein at least a portion of thecontent is based on the profile or subset of the profile transmittedfrom the first object to the second object.

In one mode, the profile is stored in the first object. Anotherembodiment of this aspect further comprises compensation to a userassociated with the second object for presenting content. In anothermode, the first object is capable of motion. In other modes, the firstobject is a vehicle, a device in a vehicle, or a handheld device. Inother modes, the second object is a vehicle or is fixed or movablesignage.

In another mode, the first object is a vehicle; and the profile furthercomprises data regarding other users or potential users associated withthe first object. In another mode, the first object and the secondobject exchange information relating to relative positions, speeds, andmotion of the first and second objects; information relating to thecharacter, configuration, and properties of the first and secondobjects; information relating to surrounding objects; and informationrelating to surrounding locations; or any combination thereof. Inanother mode, presentation of the content is influenced by informationrelating to scheduling patterns of nearby traffic signals. In stillanother mode, the content further includes content not based on saidprofile.

Another embodiment of this aspect further comprises a priority systemrelating to presentation of the content based on a nature of thecontent. In one mode of this embodiment, a nature of the content isclassified as emergency content; content relating to a surroundingenvironmental condition; registration and identification contentrelating to the second object; public safety content; or a combinationthereof.

In another mode, relative motion data from the first and second objectsdetermines whether content is presented and whether presented content ispresented as animated video, static video, or a combination of both. Inanother mode, the content includes audio content, video content, or acombination of both; wherein the audio content is presented by the firstobject; and wherein the video content is presented by either the firstobject or the second object.

In another mode, the first and second objects are vehicles; the contentcomprises positioning information relating to the first and secondobjects; and the content indicates to an operator of the first object anoptimum stopping position. In another mode, speed and positioninginformation is exchanged between all objects within transmission range;and the content presented to the first object indicates to an operatorof the first object relative braking conditions of any objects in frontof the first object.

In another mode, the second object has a user associated with the secondobject; and at least a portion of the content presented to the firstobject is created by the user associated with the second object. Inanother mode, a third party purchases a right to present content on thesecond object; and the second object presents content based onpreferences of the third party. In a further mode, the right is based ona fixed or relative geographical area; a time of day; a period ofavailable display time; or any combination thereof.

In another mode, the profile is transferable to other objects at anoption of any user associated with the first object. In another mode,the content is viewable by persons other than those associated with thefirst object. In another mode, the content is presented in a manner torender the content not viewable by individuals other than thoseassociated with the first object.

Another embodiment of this aspect further comprises a display integratedwith the second object; wherein at least a portion of the contentpresented to the first object occurs on the display. In another mode,presentation of the content occurs on an exterior portion of the secondobject.

Another embodiment of this aspect further comprises a first storagemedium associated with the first object; and a second storage mediumassociated with the second object; wherein data related to presentationof the content is stored in the first and second storage media. Anothermode of this embodiment further comprises a central server wirelesslyconnected to the first and second objects; wherein the data related topresentation of the content is uploaded to the central server. In afurther mode of this embodiment, a compilation of uploaded data in thecentral server is offered for sale. In one mode of this embodiment, thedata related to presentation of the content includes time of display;subject matter of said content; duration of display of the content; asubset of the profile; or any combination thereof.

In one mode, presentation of the content occurs in an interior portionof the first object. Another embodiment of this aspect further comprisescompensation to the user associated with the first object for receivingcontent, viewing content, or any combination thereof.

In another mode, information related to identities of all adjacent andnearby objects is exchanged between and stored in the first object andany adjacent or nearby objects. In another mode, the first and secondobjects exchange information related to audio playing in the firstobject; and the content presented to the first object comprises videocontent synchronized to the audio. In another mode, the contentpresented to the first object is limited by a user associated with thesecond object.

Another aspect of the invention is a computer implemented method,comprising: compiling a unique profile of a first user based on analysisof data provided by the first user; associating the profile with a firstobject; transmitting the profile or a subset of the profile to a secondobject; and presenting content to the first user; wherein the firstobject is associated with the first user; wherein the content originatesfrom the second object; and wherein at least a portion of the content isbased on the profile or subset of the profile transmitted to the secondobject.

An embodiment of this aspect further comprises compensating a userassociated with the second object for presenting content to the firstuser.

Another embodiment of this aspect further comprises prioritizing displayof the content based on purpose of the content; wherein purpose of thecontent is advertising; informational; traffic related; safety related;news related; region specific; political; mere frivolity; or anycombination thereof. One mode of this embodiment further comprisespre-empting presentation of the content based on surrounding environmentof the first and second objects; presence of emergency circumstances;public interest; or any combination thereof.

Other embodiments of this aspect further comprise prioritizing displayof content based on preferences of the first user; transferring theprofile to other objects at an option of the first user; displayingregistration and identification information for the second object on thesecond object; or displaying content created by a user associated withthe second object on the second object.

Another embodiment of this aspect further comprises displayingindicators of optimal traffic and view positioning on the second objectto the first user; wherein the first objects and the second objects arevehicles.

Other embodiments of this aspect further comprise pre-empting display ofthe content in the presence of external wireless signals for emergencyor traffic direction purposes; presenting audio content to the firstuser using the first object; presenting video content to the first userusing the first object, the second object, or a combination of the firstand second objects; or exchanging information relating to relativepositions, speeds, and motion of the first and second objects;information relating to the character, configuration, and properties ofthe first and second objects; information relating to surroundingobjects; and information relating to surrounding locations; or anycombination thereof, between the first object and the second object.

Another embodiment of this aspect further comprises determining relativemotions of the first and second objects; and presenting no content orcontent as animated video, static video, or a combination of animatedand static video, based on the relative motions of the first and secondobjects.

In other modes, the content is presented on a display integrated withthe second object, or the content is presented on an exterior portion ofthe second object.

Other embodiments of this aspect further comprise storing data relatedto presenting the content in the first and second objects; uploadingdata related to the presenting the content to a central serverwirelessly connected to the first and second objects; or offering acompilation of uploaded data from the central server for sale. Inanother embodiment, the data related to presenting the content includestime of display; subject matter of the content; duration of display ofthe content; a subset of the profile; or any combination thereof.

A still further aspect of the invention is a method, comprising:populating a source object with content; and presenting the content to arecipient object in response to a unique profile or portion thereofassociated with the recipient object that is provided by the recipientobject to the source object.

Yet another aspect of the invention is a system, comprising: a contentstorage device; and means for presenting content stored on the contentstorage device to a recipient object in response to a unique profile orportion thereof associated with the recipient object that is provided bythe recipient object to the source object.

Further aspects of the invention will be brought out in the followingportions of the specification, wherein the detailed description is forthe purpose of fully disclosing preferred embodiments of the inventionwithout placing limitation thereon.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

The invention will be more fully understood by reference to thefollowing drawings which are for illustrative purposes only:

FIG. 1 illustrates a general embodiment and overview of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the relationship of governments andmanufacturers to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship of advertisers andmanufacturers to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship of the driving populationand fleet or government users to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting an owner registration process forthe present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a first embodiment of a land-based moving objectusing the invention.

FIGS. 7-10 illustrate an aftermarket body panel conversion for a sportutility vehicle (SUV).

FIGS. 11-13 illustrate an aftermarket body panel conversion for apassenger sedan or Taxi.

FIGS. 14-16 illustrate an aftermarket body panel conversion for astation wagon.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram depicting the electronic vehicle packages forthe present invention.

FIGS. 18A-18B are a block diagram depicting the Distribution model ofthe present invention.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram depicting the Compensation model of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 20-23 are illustrations showing a land-based vehicle and threebasic types of displays.

FIGS. 24-27 are illustrations showing four different types of contentdisplay.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing geo-specific content distribution.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing content purchase and encoding by contenttype.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing content viewing based on FIG. 28.

FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing content protocols and queuing in aviewed vehicle.

FIG. 32 is an illustration showing geo-specific content distribution ina rural area.

FIGS. 33-34 are illustrations showing the display interactions betweenmoving objects in a city and in a freeway environment.

FIG. 35 is a diagram of the Intersection Clock for measuring the timeavailable for display.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring more specifically to the drawings, for illustrative purposes,the present invention is embodied in the system and method generallyshown in FIG. 1 through FIG. 35. It will be appreciated that the systemand apparatus may vary as to configuration and as to details of theparts, and that the method may vary as to the specific steps andsequence, without departing from the basic concepts as disclosed herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates a general embodiment and overview of the presentinvention by showing some of the essential elements which must interactto launch such a unique advertising and communications platform: first,the user base (comprised here of Government Agencies 200, Advertisers300, the Driving Population 400, and Fleet/Government Users 500); theDevelopers, Suppliers, and Manufacturers of moving objects 600, (in thisembodiment, production automobiles); the Distribution entity (orentities) 800, the Compensation entity 900 (shown separate here forclarity; in practice, this entity would likely be combined with theDistribution entity), and the body of Registered Owners and Operators,represented at 1000. Although a given embodiment might include a largenumber of such groups with wide variations of interactions between them,the groups listed herein are some of the most basic and essential to awidespread deployment of the present invention. Such relationships willrange from development funding and investment to the manufacture,implementation, operation, and maintenance of the system. A fundamentalelement to early planning is the proposed rulemaking shown at 100,followed by the legislation of design, performance, and compliancestandards for the operating aspects of the emerging system. Such effortrepresents a give-and-take objective and creative exchange betweengovernment and industry following which policies will emerge that allthe parties can live with. Precedents and parallels exist for suchefforts between government and transportation, and are well known withrespect to establishing even more stringent standards for automotiveperformance, such as, for example, The Department of Transportation'sFederal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) concerning vehicleoperating standards and crashworthiness; the EPA's Clean Air ActAmendments (CAAA) or National Low Emission Vehicle (NLEV) Standards forvehicle emissions or NHTSA's Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)Standards for fuel economy. Such standards will be negotiatedessentially between the transportation industry suppliers and automakers600 and appropriate Government Agencies 200, with input by any otherinterested parties. Content standards 105 defining how conventional,targeted and hyper-relevant advertising is ultimately presented toconsumers will most likely be established concurrently with theoperating and distribution portions of the system. This interaction willbe between the advertising community 300, the manufacturing body 600,the distribution entity 800, and its compensation unit 900, with inputfrom concerned government entities, fleet and government operators 600and from the driving population.

It is envisioned that very early funding for R&D and technologydevelopment may come from the investment arms 110, 115 of theadvertising and media community on the commercial side, and from thegovernment for exploration on the highway/traffic safety and publicservice side. This early development funding would be combined withfunding provided by the major automakers and their suppliers 600,resulting in prototype operating systems, and leading eventually to fullproduction supply 120, with such production to be integrated withregularly scheduled vehicle production. There are also specific, highlytargeted operating niche markets ideal for introducing this platform ona controlled basis, such as fleet and taxi operations, which will beexplained later. It should be noted that there are also as manydifferent potential scenarios and models for program funding sinceinterest, participation, and investment is expected from many privatesector entities, foundations, institutions, or government agencies.Another likely investment scenario is reflected at 128, in the form ofpotential investment in the Distribution entity by the transportationmanufacturers themselves, because their end products are essentialcomponents to this new advertising and communications platform.

Private investment 130 from the user body can assume many forms, such asstate and local government funding in support of innovative lawenforcement applications (some of which have been previously described);direct equity investment from advertisers 300 or from big media owners;private investment from the general driving population 400 or from fleetand business users 500 (other than their investment in private vehicleownership), such investments coming perhaps in the form of equity in theDistribution entity 800, perhaps through an IPO. Once Distribution isoperational, however, the user body will commence paying Usage Fees 140to place content on the new platform.

The output side of the Distribution unit 800 is the delivery of content(as discussed in the preceding section) distributed directly to thevehicles registered in the network through channels 150, 155, and areexplained later. Content 150 represents conventional, targeted and/orhyper-relevant audio and video ad content, public service content,personal content and encoded personal profiles from fleet or governmentusers and the general driving population. Content 155 represents thedelivery of personal preferences to Pre Existing Vehicles 655 which useaftermarket systems sold through retailers or installed as upgrades atautomobile dealerships. Pre Existing Vehicles 655 are able to wirelesslytransmit VIN, model data, content requests and ad control signals 750 toNew Production Vehicles 652, 654, and then receive audio and view videocontent derived from that data on moving object video displays 760.Fully equipped New Production Vehicles 652, 654 will send similar VIN,content and control requests 740, receive audio content internally andview video content on displays 760 which are integral to those vehicles,exterior surfaces or glazing. As previously explained, all such contentand control requests are logged on both new and aftermarket platformsfor later wireless downloading as shown by 160, 165 via network accesspoints (NAPs) to be discussed in a later section.

The Compensation unit 900, collects all data downloaded from registeredmoving objects and compares content requests with content deliveries(discussed in greater depth later), and confirms actual contentdeliveries by matching these data. Confirmed distribution information issubsequently returned to the Distribution unit 800 (which may be thesame as Compensation unit 900) as shown at 170. A critical step incontent delivery measurement, accounting and compensation occurs at thisstage. The applicant believes that it is important for any such systemto be able to identify and prevent what has become known in the Internetadvertising industry as “click-fraud.” This is a process in which users,entities or software create fraudulent requests for content deliveries(viewings) in an effort to demonstrate greater interest in a specific ador site than really exists. In the case of the present invention, thiscould be attempted by individuals to get paid for presenting ads thatwere not actually viewed. At this stage, an exchange of data 170 betweenthe Compensation unit 900 (which has downloaded logged vehicle data) andthe Distribution unit 800 takes place which involves the matching ofspecific VINs on moving objects together with the time, place and thephysical movements of those objects to determine the likelihood offraud. This process is explained in greater detail in a followingsection. Once in-field content deliveries have been authenticated, theCompensation unit 900 can approve payments to the registered vehiclesthat have had their display of content confirmed via the mechanism at170. This applies to all registered production vehicles 652, 654, and insome instances to the vehicles which only view content such as vehicleshaving aftermarket installations 655. The Distribution unit 800 can thenfeed back in-field performance measurements to the general user body asindicated at 180. The Compensation unit 900 has, among numerous tasksdiscussed in a later section, two key functions: the payment offinancial compensation to Registered Platform Owner/Operators 1000, asshown at 178; and the sale of ad hoc collected data to marketers andresearchers, as indicated at 1100.

FIG. 2 shows potential relationships between Government Agencies 200 andDevelopers, Suppliers and Manufacturers 600 relative to the funding,regulation and use of the present invention. Although there are manysuch possible combinations, named are a few of those agencies that mayhave a bearing on some of the Regulatory issues 220 and public serviceusage issues 240. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) 202, for example, would have a clear role in establishingvehicle standards, including testing and compliance procedures, just asit has had in other Department of Transportation (DOT) programs, some ofwhich have been previously mentioned. The Federal Highway Administration(FHWA) 204 has a vision to create the best transportation system in theworld. In partnership with the overall highway and transportationcommunity, its charter is to assure the safest and most efficienthighway and intermodal transportation systems possible, in whichcrashes, delays and congestion are significantly reduced, where roadsprotect ecosystems, where pedestrians and bicyclists are accommodatedand where transportation services are restored immediately afterdisasters and emergencies. The present invention is capable of makingsignificant contributions to all of these specific objectives. A primegoal of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration(NTIA) 206, is to bring dramatic growth and change to the nation'seconomic, social and political life through a fundamental mission ofpromoting market-based policies that can lower prices to consumers andencourage innovation, while harnessing the resources of the Federalgovernment to support spectrum-based technologies that enhanceefficiency and productivity. Clearly, the broad application of thewireless spectrum to produce commercial and public communicationsopportunities that also benefit consumers financially, are within NTIA'scharter. The Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA)208 is dedicated to the advancement of DOT priorities for innovation andresearch in transportation technologies and concepts. Innovations thatwill improve our mobility, promote economic growth, and ultimatelydeliver a better integrated transportation system. The agency's charteris to foster the exchange of ideas and information in a high-priorityincubator committed to research and to getting innovative ideas from thelaboratory into the field. RITA can effectively assess the presentinvention's ability to clean up distractive highway signage stimuli,adopt more effective direct vehicle collision warning systems,incorporate state-of-the-art techniques in the enforcement of drunkdriving laws and the delivery of emergency medical services andgenerally, through the present invention, dramatically improve thedesign and management of highway safety programs. The National WeatherService (NOAA) 210 has a current program in place called “Flooding AheadTurn Around Don't Drown”, an attempt to reduce the high numbers of liveslost each year by drivers whose vehicles are swept away while trying tocross heavily flooded areas. This program has previously involvedposting a plastic sign on a small metal stand where the road disappearsbeneath the water. The program has enjoyed limited effectiveness but isa logistics nightmare in terms of deployment on an urgent basis.Tornados, landslides, hurricanes, flash floods, wildfires: all havesimilar impact and problematic solutions when it comes to protecting thepublic. The present invention, however, is, in fact, a rolling billboardhaving instant communications whose content (including animated, mobile,warning signage complete with flashing lights) can be deployed instantlywhere ever it is. Thus, NOAA's involvement in early rulemaking couldprove a tremendous benefit to public safety. The Bureau ofTransportation Statistics (BTS) 212 is responsible for assessing therelationships between transportation and the economy on an ongoingbasis, including our transportation system's share of Gross DomesticProduct, employment and transportation expenditures. Its work bearsheavily on such previously discussed areas as urban congestion and thedirect costs to consumers in wasted fuel and time. This area alonejustifies the early involvement and sustained tracking of BTS todocument the tangible long term benefits of the present invention.Finally, there are numerous other agencies 214 whose capabilities cancome to bear on the present invention's implementation, and theircoordinated efforts must be multinational in scope.

Usage 240 indicates just few of the potential applications worthy offunding by Federal Governments. Such funding 110 is to be directed inpart towards supporting the research and development efforts ofautomotive Developers, Suppliers and Manufacturers 600. The principalareas for development are Telematics 610, the means for implementingcommunications between moving objects; Data Processing 620, methods fordecoding, storing, polling, extracting, queuing, encoding and uploadingdata and content for distribution via the present invention; Displays630, the evolution of cost-effective displays from current or newtechnologies for incorporation into high volume production vehicles ofall kinds; and Panels & Glazing 640, the use of automotive glazing asplatforms for content display.

Proposed Rulemaking and Legislation relationships 100. Upgrades intelecommunications and content handling, operating systems, displays,including hardware and software for the present invention after itsinitial introduction are indicated at 125. Investment is shown at 128,suggesting the possibility of automakers and their suppliers takingequity positions in the Distribution entity (or entities). At 142, UsageFees are paid to the Distribution entity 800 for government or publicservice content downloads indicated at 152, which are then stored onvehicle hard drives. Such fees would likely be paid, part in advance,based upon negotiated service contracts between various governmentagencies and the Distribution entity. The balances would be paid later,once in-field content deliveries have been confirmed from loggeddownloads. At 161, logged public service content requests (andoptionally, confirmed deliveries) are downloaded from aftermarketplatform installations. At 162, logged public service content requestsand logged public service exposures are similarly downloaded toCompensation 900 for processing and confirmation. At 182, confirmedpublic use content exposure is returned to Distribution where it canthen be translated into effective measurement information regardingengagement and the precise time, place, circumstances for contentdelivery and whether or not specific and appropriate actions were takenby the recipients on a timely basis in response to such contentdeliveries (In other words, did they act on a specific audio/visualdisplay presented to them in the field?). Finally, at 186, documentedperformance is fed back to the appropriate Government Agencies 200. Thisfeedback will vary with the needs of the specific agencies involved andwould perhaps be accomplished under contract between Distribution andthat specific agency of government. An example of such measurement andfeedback would be the confirmation to NOAA that a specific number ofvehicles were turned back from a flash flood zone and were directed overan alternate route well in advance of an actual crisis, along withgeo-specific mapping showing the positions and numbers of vehiclessimultaneously exposed to the audio/visual alert (via the presentinvention), the precise timing and movements of those vehicles afterthat alert (based on logged GPS data) and the movements of thoseinvention-equipped vehicles that did not heed the alert, so that alerteffectiveness can be determined.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationships of advertisers andmanufacturers to the present invention. Although the advertisingcommunity 300 is multifaceted, it has been defined collectively as threeelements: the media buyers 305 (entities responsible for purchasing andscheduling ads in various media), the advertising agencies and theirclients 310, and the content producers 315 (entities typically hired bythe ad agencies to create, produce and execute products for mediaplacements). The applicant envisions these groups, individually andcollectively, influencing and guiding proposed standards 106 forcreative content and system functionality, key elements of which arelisted in Content Standards 320. Note that the development of thesestandards will be augmented at 100 by the interface with U.S. andForeign Government Agencies 200. These groups will combine theiressentially creative and marketing powers and their political andlegislative experience to shape rulemaking for such issues as: Graphics& Animation Standards (determining, for example, the distractivequalities of animations with regard to driver attention and establishingcriteria for such displays); Content Standards & Formats (limitations oncertain kinds of ad content relative to specific demographics, or themanner in which certain presentations can be made and to whom);Telematics Standards (the technologies that will be applied in allowingmoving objects to talk to each other); Proximity & Venue Regulations(determining times and locations in which certain kinds of ads might notbe permitted, or might be limited in scope or content); methods andschemes for Demographic Encoding (classifying the various types ofproducts and ads so they can be matched to consumer request profiles andproperly tracked for measurement, accountability and compensation);Impulse Response Standards (uniform methods allowing consumers torequest information on products or to order and purchase products safelywhile using their moving objects and to securely link such orders withcredit and shipping information; Field Override Standards (the criteriaand procedures allowing law enforcement to take command of an ongoingdisplay in the interests of public safety or need); assuring conformancewith current and anticipated NHTSA Standards; Compliance & Regulation(developing testing and compliance procedures to assure standards inmanufacturing and use; and Compensation Standards (the development ofaccounting, billing and general compensation procedures and contractsincluding defining industry fair practices, ownerships, taxation,disbursements and similar consumer related business issues). At 134,Joint Production Specifications are implemented with the manufacturingteams 600 and are incorporated into the network's operating systems bythe Distribution unit 800.

Paths 130 and 143 represent two of the key financial channels for theadvertising community. Although there are numerous scenarios forinvestment to occur, the most likely is through equity, loan oradvancement by the advertising or media industry as a whole, becausethese represent both a significant user and beneficiary. As notedhereinabove, there is a serious need for improved ad accountability,demographic effectiveness and tracking of engagement, and there is noquestion that advertisers and large media buyers are desperate to findnew ways of reaching consumers and in recapturing defections fromcommercial television to the Internet. With so much at stake in theindustry, the logical core investors for the present invention are, themajor Media Buyers 305, the Advertising Agencies and their Clients 310,the content Producers 315, and, of course, the operators of traditionalmedia and advertising platforms such as commercial television. Onereason this makes so much sense is that this Advertising community 300,which comprises these three entities, will also become the network'slargest user and payer of User Fees 143.

Again, 120 represents the supply path for New Vehicle Production 650,and 153 represents the uploading of Advertising Content, along withencoded profiles, upgrades and distribution instructions via theInternet, to individual vehicles 652, 654, 655.

Path 167 indicates Logged Content Requests from Pre Existing Vehicles,while path 164 shows the upload path for Logged Advertising Requests andLogged Advertising Exposure from New Vehicle Production. As it was withConfirmed Public Service Use, path 173 indicates Confirmed AdDistributions sent back to the Distribution unit for ad performanceassessment, engagement tracking, measurement, accountability, fraudexposure and compensation. Once data is processed by the Distributionunit 800, it can provide performance feedback 183 to Media Buyers, AdAgencies or Advertisers in a variety of formats, including data on thedirect daily deliveries to specified demographics with the exact times,places and durations for such impressions, along with consumer views andopinions, related information requests, resulting purchases and othercriteria, all at multiple levels of depth in accuracy and measurementpreviously unavailable in the advertising industry.

It is also worth noting that with the creation of such a widespread,flexible and mobile video platform, it is only a matter of time beforethe major news and entertainment media companies realize that thepresent invention offers an exceptional means to reach consumers withrich content presentations while they are on the go, yet are in a safeand relaxed mode to receive such information. For cable leaders such asFox News, the present invention offers a unique mobile forum fordelivering breaking news and local event alerts and thus represents ahuge potential revenue stream for all general media andtelecommunications.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship of the Driving Population400 and Fleet/Government Users 500 to the Distribution unit 800. Both ofthese user groups will be discussed in terms of Online User Communities,one referenced at 410 for the General Driving Population, the other at510 for Fleet Business and Government Users. Examples of these and howthey work have been described in previous text. Over time, suchcommunities may take on a variety of forms; however, the applicantenvisions most of these being operated by the individual automakers,aftermarket producers or retail dealership bodies responsible for thedesign and manufacture of the moving objects themselves. For purposes ofthis discussion, these communities are defined in four sections, eachrepresenting an online activity. For the Driving Population these wouldbe: (1) Registration 420, which can begin at the dealership with therecording of a vehicle's VIN, a process which can be completed at homewith final licensing online; (2) Membership 430, where each member of afamily can join the community by creating his own User Name andPassword; (3) Preferences 440, where each new member can follow easyonline prompts in multiple choice, pull down menu, check box or textwrite-in format to define his personal interests, wants, needs, desires,capabilities and experiences, these in terms of a pair of profilesdefining “who he is,” and “what he wants” as these preferences relate tohis personal lifestyle and to the kinds of advertising he would like toview or present; and (4) Personal Use 450, where a member—typically uponapproval of the Registered Owner who is the designated SystemAdministrator—can elect to create and upload a variety of personalmessages, sponsorships or advertising they would like to display toothers for personal or business purposes and for which they will bebilled at a discounted rate if presented on their own vehicle.

These online sections are similar to those used for the Commercial orFleet Business User body or for Government Users, except they aretailored for business and commercial applications and are structured toaccommodate a multiplicity of moving objects or vehicles: (1)Registration 520, where a business or fleet owner can register a numberof vehicles to be driven by drivers under contract to that business; (2)Operator Profiles 530 where a business manager is responsible foridentifying his drivers and informing them of the network's system andrules; (3) Preferences 540, where a business or government fleet managercan establish the communications, viewing and presentation preferencesfor his own drivers and his fleet; and (4) Fleet/Government Official Use550, where registered business owners or fleet managers can enter intocontracts with the Distribution entity 800 to display their owncompany's advertising, branding or promotions. The applicant anticipatesthat a number of individually operated advertising and promotionbusinesses may spin off from such commercial platforms wherein smallbusiness owners might purchase dual-purpose vehicles with the intent ofoperating a fleet of mobile ad platforms around the clock in keymarkets, to train and manage drivers for such an enterprise, and to thencharge advertisers for the presentation of content by specialized venueor times which might be otherwise unavailable. This would not be unlikeprivately-operated auction businesses which have spun off from thepopular Ebay model. An embodiment for such a fleet application isdiscussed in a later section concerning moving object fleet adoption andproduction. The combined upload path for Owner/Operator Profiles isshown at 114.

As previously explained, Vehicle Registrations for the present inventionare linked to Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) and arecross-checked with DMV records for information which, from a legal orbusiness perspective, might preclude a membership approval. Suchprecautionary measures are well known in the industry and followcommonly established prudent business and legal practices.Owner/Operator Profiles 530 and Preferences 440, 540 may be subjected tosimilar scrutiny; however, it is the objective of such profiles todefine the nature of the content which is to be viewed by such ownersand operators, and to a lesser degree, to determine what they will bedisplaying to other members and to the public at large. In terms of whatis actually displayed to the public under the present invention, allcontent is thoroughly monitored and approved under strict standards andpractices which have been established through the joint efforts betweengovernment and business, as described in the foregoing sections.Approved and Encoded Owner/Operator Profiles for both Personal andFleet/Government Users are uploaded at 116 to specific vehicles by VIN,or by an equivalent vehicle identifying process which links registeredowners to their vehicles. As occurred previously with Advertising andPublic Service content, personal content for the general DrivingPopulation and Fleet or Government Public Service and Business contentis uploaded to New Vehicle Production at 154. Additionally, PersonalPreferences for controlling the viewing characteristics from PreExisting Vehicles are uploaded to these vehicles at 118.

An important byproduct of the present invention (in addition to itsability to request and confirm the delivery of profile-enabledhyper-relevant content), is its ability to simultaneously, and evenpassively, track and measure all such requests and deliveries, includingany actions taken by consumers as the result of such deliveries while inthe field, then to gather and compile such data in terms of consumermovements by time, venue and VIN, all relative to their demographic andpsychographic profiles. This kind of information can be easily generatedthrough the interaction of moving objects using the present invention,and through moving object interactions with other kinds of compatible,profile-driven mobile devices in the field. As each moving object ormobile device communicates with others in an effort to match transmitteduser code “requests” with stored content, as in the case of the presentinvention (or to match User Codes as disclosed in the applicant'snonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 11/552,932, filed Oct. 25,2006, entitled: “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING REVENUE FROM THEDISTRIBUTION OF HYPER-RELEVANT ADVERTISING THROUGH PERMISSIVE MINDREADING, PROXIMITY ENCOUNTERS AND DATABASE AGGREGATION”, incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety), these moving objects emit encodedsignals which describe the essential nature, makeup and interests of aseeking party. Regardless of matched content requests, deliveredcontent, or attempted or consummated in-field communications, all suchmoving objects or mobile devices may, if so programmed, receive andstore in-field transmissions from all other such moving objects anddevices. Each of these transmissions is time-stamped and identified bydevice and location. The codes for any such attempted or consummatedcommunications can then be collected and uploaded to the Compensationunit 900 and the Distribution unit 800 when these moving objects arelinked to a network.

This level of verifiable information on consumer demographics,psychographics and interests, when coupled with their movements andtravels, can be of extraordinary value to market researchers andplanners. These include: architects and developers, retail store andmall planners, high schools and universities, concert and eventproducers, resort and theme park planners, transportation planners, lawenforcement, government lawmakers and of course advertisers andmarketers. The sale of this data is indicated at 1100 in FIG. 1. Thedownloading of special instructions for the collection of ad hocresearch and planning data based on independently contracted or measuredstudies is shown at 1120 in FIG. 4. The uploading of such ad hoccollected in-field data is shown at 1140.

Logged Personal Use Authorizations (request signals permitting orpreventing personal content to be presented to a viewing vehicle) areuploaded from all vehicles at 167 to the Compensation unit 900. LoggedPersonal Use Exposure (data confirming the presentation of personalcontent to a viewing vehicle) is uploaded at 168 to the Compensationunit 900 via Network Access Points (NAPs) in the same manner as loggedAdvertising or Public Service Exposure is uploaded from moving objects.Such logged exposure is sent to Distribution 800, where it is matchedwith Personal and Fleet/Government Use Profiles as shown at 175. Oncecontent deliveries are matched and authenticated (by confirming that thecodes on delivered content match the codes on the receiving movingobject and also cross-check with the originally uploaded content), thenthe Compensation unit authorizes the fees charged for such Personal UseExposure to be either billed to the Registered Owner 1000 or subtractedfrom any Compensation that is to be paid to that Registered Owner asindicated at 178.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting a typical owner registration processfor the present invention. The basic procedure for completing onlineregistrations are commonly known today, so it is the purpose of thisdiagram to describe the steps and decisions a consumer might make inengaging with the business of viewing and displaying hyper-relevant adsand personal communications. Two parallel engagement paths are shown,reflecting a preferred embodiment including a land-based vehicle. Bothpaths describe a consumer's entry into the distribution networkbeginning at 402 for Pre Existing (or aftermarket) Vehicles and at 404for New Production Vehicles.

Beginning at 402, the consumer of a Pre Existing Vehicle bears theresponsibility for buying, installing and setting up the hardware andsoftware through which he participates in the distribution network 800.This can be accomplished through a purchase of the electronics packagefrom an automotive dealer (followed with installation by that dealer) orit might result from the purchase of the package from an automotiveaccessories or aftermarket retailer and could be installed by the ownerhimself. Regardless, the process of registration and membership whichfollows is essentially the same for both user paths.

At 422, using a computer, a modem and an online browser to interact withthe aftermarket manufacturer's web site, the prospective user submitshis Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and other required information,such as (pending final registration and contractual requirements) hisDriver's License number and other necessary information such as thebrand, year, make and model of his vehicle, unless such data is providedfor in the VIN, and Credit Information. The physical characteristics ofeach vehicle—height, width, driver's eyepoint (or eye envelope), numberof occupants when at full capacity, etc.—are pre-encoded, either as partof the registered VIN, or under each owner's vehicle profile by make andmodel. In practice, these specifications are transmitted between movingobjects so that optimum, yet minimum, spacing between moving objects isalways established when stopping in traffic with precise line-of-sightviewing angles based on the different vehicle types. For example, adriver's forward sightline through a windshield at a height typical of alow sedan or sports car to the rear area of a tall SUV will result in amore upward angled sightline and a specific bumper to bumper vehiclespacing requirement; conversely, a line-of-sight through the windshieldof a taller SUV to a video display on the aft surfaces of a low sportssedan would result in a more extreme downward viewing angle and yetdifferent kind of vehicle to vehicle optimum spacing; and finally wherean SUV to another SUV of similar height would produce a more horizontalsightline and yet another specification for vehicle spacing. In otherwords, because interacting vehicles talk to each other and exchange VINnumbers, the lead or stopped vehicle is able to tell a vehicleapproaching from the rear precisely the best place to stop for theoptimum viewing of its rear mounted display. In every case, theproximity measurements and the vehicle-to-vehicle spacing (furtherdiscussed in FIG. 17) is governed by vehicle codes so that optimumsightlines are established for content delivery and so that the tightestpractical spacing between all so equipped vehicle types is assured,which conserves traffic lane consumption under practical trafficconditions. Vehicle-to-vehicle lane space conservation enabled by avisual range/stopping indicator is a valuable byproduct of the presentinvention.

Continuing the online registration process at 434, each new user has theopportunity to register, or allow other drivers or passengers in thefamily (or in the business if a fleet application) to register, alongwith the ages and genders of any children or other family members whomight be passengers in the vehicle under that VIN. At this point, eachfamily member can establish his own user name and password if they wish.If that person is underage, or if it is preferred by the RegisteredOwner (who normally becomes the System Administrator for the VIN), thenhe or she will control access to the system and to any profiles that arelater completed for such family members.

At 438, these user names (or nickname handles) are programmed into thevehicle's User Selector 780 (explained in more detail in FIG. 7). Thiscontrol allows consumers to switch the viewing preferences on-the-flyfrom one person to another, or combinations thereof. However, finalcontrol can always remain with the vehicle's System Administrator. Inother words, dad controls who gets to see what while riding in dad'scar.

At 443, family members are allowed, in the privacy of their own home, toselect their individual ad viewing preferences. Here, each member of thefamily (or the authorized users in a business) can execute multiplechoice, click-on, or write-in-the-box text responses which allow them todefine “who they are” and “what they want” in terms of their personalinterests, wants, needs and experiences, and in the kinds of advertisingthey would like to view. This profiling technique is explained in detailand is the subject of the applicant's nonprovisional patent applicationSer. No. 11/552,932, filed Oct. 25, 2006, entitled: “METHOD ANDAPPARATUS FOR OBTAINING REVENUE FROM THE DISTRIBUTION OF HYPER-RELEVANTADVERTISING THROUGH PERMISSIVE MIND READING, PROXIMITY ENCOUNTERS ANDDATABASE AGGREGATION”, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Using an individual's home or office computer, a networked laptop, a PDAor even a cell phone, user personal profiles can be updated andsubmitted periodically from nearly any location having network access.Also, because ad preferences can be highly personal in nature—andbecause they directly influence the kinds of products and services, orthe kinds of entertainment and lifestyles a user is interested in orcurious about—it is possible for users, at 443, to select and controlthe timing and circumstances for all outgoing content requests. Forexample, if an individual is interested in certain kinds of personalproducts or subject matter which he prefers remaining confidential, whenhe completes this portion of his Personal Ad Viewing Preferences, he canlimit such content requests, for example, to only the times he is alonein his vehicle. It is also possible to control the external displayviewing angle so that others in vehicles adjacent to a viewed vehicleare unable or less able to see any content that is displayed.

In a similar manner, a user can prevent certain kinds or all kinds ofadvertising to be presented to him by other objects at the time he isoperating or is inside his own moving object. If a user finds certaincontent to be of little or no personal interest, or if he finds itoffensive or objectionable, he can prevent its exposure to himself andto others who may be with him or are in the immediate vicinity. Thepresent invention accomplishes this simply by deleting or preventingcontent requests based on a specific user's stored profile. When a userprevents the display of such content to himself, he also precludes thedisplaying party from earning any compensation from such display. Thusthe present invention is in many ways a very democratic process.

For parents of young children, the system is a tremendous advantage.Under a preferred embodiment defining a land-based moving object, whenkids are traveling in their parents' vehicle, parents can preventcertain ads or content which they feel are inappropriate from beingdisplayed on moving or fixed objects around them. When the kids are nolonger in the vehicle, those ads can be switched back on or allowed.

At 445, the Registered Owner of a Pre Existing Vehicle can alsodetermine his own and his family's Viewing Protocols. Preferences can beswitched on or off depending upon the occupants of the vehicle, orwhether the party responsible for the vehicle wishes to allow or toprevent ads from being viewed by any other specific party. Researchreveals that kids today truly enjoy watching commercials as long as theydeal with subjects they are interested in. So if kids are misbehaving,parents might just threaten to shut off their ad viewing preferences forthe rest of the way home.

A wide variety of ad viewing features are expected to be implemented bythe individual manufacturers of moving objects under the guidelinesframed by the Distribution network 800 and government regulationsrelating thereto. For example, such features might allow users to giveweight to each family member's preferences in terms of time sharingduring use (e.g., 20% to dad's preferences, 30% to mom's preferences,with the kids splitting the remaining 50% evenly, assuming they've beengood). These preferences are interpreted into signals broadcast to othermoving or stationary objects in the vicinity, thereby controlling thevariety and nature of the ads polled and selected for presentation bysuch other objects. Based on each vehicle manufacturer's specificationsand on network content guidelines, the application of user preferencescan be further controlled, either automatically or manually, based onthe time of day and event location. For example, if mom is runningaround all day doing errands, then picks up the kids and delivers themhome or to a friend's house between 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM, she can set thepreferences to favor herself up until 3:00 PM, then engage the kidspreferences for an hour, then instruct the vehicle to switch them backautomatically to hers after they've been dropped off, or she can do thismanually. Just as in the design and execution of vehicle airconditioning and entertainment control systems, it will be up to eachmanufacturer to design and integrate its own version of these controlsfor marketing, human factors and user friendliness under its own qualitycontrol and operating standards, providing of course they also complywith any federally or more universally mandated system standards.

At 455, after completing membership, viewing, and protocol preferences,the newly Registered Owner of a Pre Existing Vehicle is presented withthe network's Distribution and Compensation contract terms andconditions which he must read and sign electronically. Finally, at 465,he submits his profile package and executed contracts online to theDistribution entity 800 for approval.

In the second engagement path, beginning at 404 (and also under apreferred embodiment using a land-based vehicle), an owner has purchasedor leased a New Production Vehicle with the ad display technology builtin. As we saw in the family scenario, the dealership has pre-registeredthe vehicle using the new owner's Driver's License number which has beenlinked to the new product's VIN. At 420, this new owner completes hisregistration process using the automaker's Home Enrollment community website.

It is beyond the scope of this document to describe the variouspotential methods of consumer profiling or content encoding, becausethese are straightforward processes well known to those skilled in thefields of demographic and psychographic analysis and in the arts ofinterpreting the subjective elements that comprise human interest andcommercial engagement. Regardless, the process begins in FIG. 5 at 420for New Production Vehicles (continuing through steps 432, 436, 442,444, 446), and at 422 for aftermarket vehicles (continuing through 434,438, 443 and 445), as consumers are asked in separate profiles togenerally define “who they are” and “what they want” in terms ofrelative life experiences, expectations, beliefs, interests andobjectives regarding various types of products or services. This mayextend to specific brands, product makes, companies or even politicalaffiliations. Such profiles are executed in guided, online question andanswer sessions which combine multiple choice questions and unstructuredtext responses designed to encourage individuals to better know andreveal themselves and their unique personalities. These profiles can belater analyzed for hidden relational values and meanings utilizingproprietary deep-search software designed to identify personalcharacteristics that individuals are often unable or unwilling to definefor themselves. The methods for creating and gathering such personalinformation through profiling are well known to professionals in thefields of psychology and marketing. Also known are the methods ofquantifying, weighting, characterizing, prioritizing, integrating andultimately linking such results to the selling of products and services,along with methods of encoding and encrypting such data once it iscreated. What is novel is the present invention's method of directlyasking consumers—and asking in significant detail—about the commercialcontent they are most interested in seeing and hearing about, and thenenabling them, through a technological structure and system, to request,poll, queue and present such content on a time and venue specific basisat a time they are most open and receptive to such information.

The following steps, Registration of Additional Family Members (432);Assignment of Family/User Names to Preference Selector (436); FamilyMember Selection of Personal Ad Viewing Preferences (442), andRegistered Owner Determines Viewing Protocols (444), are essentially thesame as discussed for the Pre Existing Vehicle registration path.

At 446, however, the new vehicle owner is given a chance to determinehis vehicle's Display Preferences, something preexisting vehicles areunable to do unless they are equipped with an external or internal videodisplay. Generally, most content scheduling will be performed at themedia buy level. In other words, there is a media exposure hierarchywhich determines the value of a given ad's impressions based on theplatform's ability to reach specific audiences at specific times withspecific and hyper-relevant messages—and for the first time with thepresent invention—in very precise locations. Such media buys will besignificantly more valuable to certain advertisers and will thereforecommand high price tags to the advertiser. If a Registered Owner is ableto deliver large numbers of impressions in high-value markets, then hewould also logically share in the receipts generated by that particularplatform, in this case his own vehicle's VIN. For this reason theapplicant envisions small business spin-offs involving individuals orsmall companies that could register large numbers of moving objectsprimarily to circulate ads within the high value target markets such asthe downtown areas densely populated cities. Should this generateunnecessary traffic flow within these areas, procedures could be put inplace to prevent such random increases.

Because content deliveries are essentially automated and representsophisticated media buys (sensitive to content type, viewerdemographics, locations, delivery times, etc.), and because mostconsumers will always want to optimize the revenue generated by theirdelivery platforms, it is best for consumers to set their displaypreferences to automatic. Automatic display references are designed togenerate the greatest revenue by targeting and giving priority to thehighest value markets first. In this regard, at 446, both the consumerand the Distribution entity are without conflict of interest. Indetermining one's own display preferences it is also possible to berelatively selective. For example, profiles will allow Registered Ownersto preclude (or “blacklist”) any companies whose products or services itprefers not to advertise, promote or display. In so doing, that owneralso forgoes revenue from those precluded display ad opportunities.Examples might include individuals who wish to boycott certain productsor companies. Another might be political candidates for one party oranother, especially near election time. Therein lies anotherresponsibility for Distribution, and an inherent feature of the presentinvention: political promotions in and around polling places can beelectronically monitored and prevented. The reverse is also true. If anindividual favors a particular company or product, he can request apriority for the display of content relating that company's products orservices. At his option, he can also buy a corporate sponsorship forthat entity. However, each such selection is likely to have revenueconsequences for the Registered Owner.

At 448, media platform owners are able to implement another step indetermining the use of their assets: selecting their Personal UsePreferences for their own moving objects. Because personal ad placementdecisions also bear on the VIN's overall ability to generate income,only the System Administrator for that VIN (usually the RegisteredOwner) is permitted to authorize them. This is done easily and privatelyby the consumer following prompts on his user/community web site. Suchpersonal use is typically charged at a discount since a family orindividual will be using his own asset, but clearly such use will reducerevenues from that individual's display of content for others.

At 452, family members (or small businesses) are allowed to create andsubmit their own personal ad content for display on their own or onother moving objects. Such content can range from simple neighborhoodbusiness ads to very spontaneous advertisements applied to vehicles onthe spur of the moment, such as displaying a High School's home teamlogo at game time. At 454, owners are given the chance create personalmessages. These can be posted instantly and spontaneously, or on ascheduled basis, on an owner's own vehicle, or on other vehicles basedon a standard rate. Such messages can also be accompanied by audiocontent sent wirelessly to a viewing vehicle's on-board audio system, orreleased within a viewing vehicle from its internal hard drive, based ona received code. There are many such examples of personal ads,sponsorships or messaging: a political candidate might email you ananimated electronic bumper sticker from their campaign office which, ifyou approve, you can then send directly to the back of your car at theclick of a mouse. Another such spontaneous message might be a “For Sale”sign on the back of a vehicle, linked to “impulse request” electronicsas a means for obtaining information on-the-fly (a feature described inmore detail at 782 in FIG. 7). Another example might be a “Just Married”sign appearing on, perhaps, all of the vehicles in a wedding party, or a“Need Help” alert if problems are encountered on an open highway. Any,number of spontaneously posted personal messages is possible providingthey meet the Distribution entity's Standards and Practices for PersonalContent review and are approved at 842 in FIG. 8. As explained later,this unit can electronically screen and then lock out certain graphiccontent that may be commonly viewed as offensive in terms of publicexposure, or beyond the bounds of reasonable free speech. Such contentis submitted by the Registered Owner online and once screened, can bescheduled for automated release, or can be stored on the VIN's harddrive for spontaneous or manual release by the owner in the field. Thedisplay of Personal content will be accompanied by a standard fee forthe level of exposure anticipated (based on the time, place and marketfor that impression) less any discounts, and the transaction would showup on the VIN owner's monthly statement. Personal Use charges wouldnormally be discounted and debited against the Registered Owner'smonthly income check. The broadcast of Personal Ad Content to othermoving objects, however, would constitute a media buy. Such purchasesare scheduled online at the going rates (again, based on the time, placeand market for such impressions) and might possibly include discounts tolarge users or long-term memberships within the network.

The steps of Registered Owner Agreement with Operating Contract Terms(456); Agreement with Compensation Contract Terms (458); and RegisteredOwner Submits Profile for Approval and Distribution (460) are similarsteps to those previously described for Pre Existing Vehicles.

Step 470 indicates an ongoing process whereby Registered Owners are ableto, or in fact, encouraged to periodically update their profiles andmemberships for the viewing of hyper-relevant content, and to submit anynew personal content for approvals to the Distribution entity 800.

It is not the intent of this disclosure to teach the ways in whichpersonal profiles should be structured, but to leave that to themarketers and planning experts skilled in the art of interpretiveresearch for consumer interests and responses. That said, it is anobject of the present invention to facilitate a means to learn thedegree to which individuals are interested in, curious about, or leaningtowards, purchases in such areas as transportation, foods, clothing,real estate, banking, finance, investment, consumer goods, toys,medicine, entertainment, social networking, communications, education,advanced technologies, sports, politics, current events and the like,along with relative specifics on the timing for such interests orprospective purchases, together with identifying the kinds ofinformation that link such interests to specific kinds of lifestyle andcontent delivery. It is also an object of the present invention to allowfor special events, for example when a mother is searching for birthdayideas for a teen son, or a husband for a wife's anniversary. With theability to include such hyper-relevant interests and needs into thesystem and to later remind users of upcoming events, automatically andon a timely basis, the present invention is able to take hyper-targetedor hyper-relevant marketing and promotion to entirely new levels ofperformance.

FIG. 6 illustrates a first embodiment of a land-based moving object 650where the integration of the hyper-relevant advertising display systemcan be clearly seen. The vehicle design and package shown follows ananticipated design evolution timeline and exhibits rear body surfacesthat could naturally accommodate the display technology. A formed,printed OLED (or alternative) display 760 is present, with surfacescontoured to meet the desired rear deck lid and body panels of thesubject vehicle. The display 760 is seamless and, in this example, runsthe full width of the rear (5th) door; however, numerous configurationsare feasible. The display 760 would be placed above the rear bumperimpact zone, but may ultimately be considered a replaceable automotivecrash part.

It is quite clear from this illustration that the proper design andintegration of automotive digital rear ends can thoroughly enhance theaesthetic qualities of production automobiles while they optimize thefunctionality of the components they replace such as tail lights, turnsignals, center mount stop light, back up lights, license plate lights,recesses, plates, frames and registration. At the same time, the singlepanel, lightweight display offers complete freedom for the automaker'smodel and branding, and in fact, introduces, for the first time ever, anability to animate the way a vehicle brands, identifies and/or expressesitself. Of greatest importance, however, is the area of display 760,which can extend the full width of the rear hatch, and enables fullmotion video for the presentation of advertising content. A primaryadvantage of using formable and flexible organic light-emitting diode(OLED) displays for automotive applications of the type proposed by thepresent invention is that such display panels can be formed consistentlywith the design objectives of the original vehicle. By example, theincorporation of a conventional flat panel display in the size and typeof panel shown in the figures would consume a prohibitive amount of theinner body panel cavity which is necessary for other vehicle functions.Also, because flat panel displays are not flexible, they cannot beintegrated flush with a contemporary automobile's surface contours. Thismeans that with the exception of tiny flat panel sizes which are toosmall for displays which can be read at appropriate distances, flatpanels will produce undesirable surface reflections and significantlyunrefined design appearances. OLED displays, FOLED (flexible organiclight-emitting diode) displays or PHOLED (phosphorescent organiclight-emitting diode) displays plus FOLED substrates which can belaminated into various types of automotive glazing, when combinedrepresent an unending array of affordable video display opportunitiesfor production body panel surfaces. Shown here at area 765 is a singlecorporate logo (in this case Apple Computer) in what might be called a“sponsorship” mode. This mode is commonly used while traveling atfreeway or highway speeds, is designed for easy reading from greaterdistances and would permit only minor color changes or enhancements sothat it would not attract the attention of nearby drivers. The displaypanel's background in this example could carry the same color as thevehicle's exterior finish allowing complete emphasis to be placed on thelogo (the current ad content) as it is presented in this example. Themoment this vehicle begins to slow, the logo would softly dissolve andbrake light “zones” would appear simultaneously on the right and leftsides of panel 760, along with the federally mandated center mount stoplight just above the Apple logo seen here. At the same time, it islikely that license plate identification would appear in large, easy toread, well-illuminated graphics, perhaps in the center or to one side,depending on the automaker's default design. It is possible that brakelight/turn signal/marker light portions of the digital rear end couldchange color and transition from pale amber through bright amber toamber-red, to rich bright red for the hardest braking. Such transitionsin color and brightness, spread over more time and a greater panel area(while retaining the familiar left side/right side tail light visualseparations which can help drivers gauge distance) provide increasedlevels of information relating to stopping urgency, compared to currentbrake warnings which transition between full on or full off, and whichcan lead to over-stimuli and panic stops as they so often do today. Ofimportance in the present invention is that during any speed ormaneuvering changes the ad content slate is gently wiped clean so as tobe totally non-distractive. At this moment, in fact during any vehiclemaneuvering, vehicle lighting, licensing and FMVSS safety andperformance systems take clear precedence over any other visual orgraphic imagery on that portion of the vehicle. In other words, thepresent invention needn't introduce any new changes in the ways movingobjects are viewed today. Drivers who are engaged with the presentinvention need not take their eyes off the objects moving in their pathsas they must do today when viewing roadside advertisements and signage.In practice, the graphic surface character of a moving object may simplydissolve and change before a driver's eyes, but only at predeterminedtimes (generally when fully stopped), and then always by transitioningto greater levels of safety and visual standardization at criticaltimes. The present invention, therefore, promises not only richer, morerelevant and meaningful commercial communications, but also greateroperational highway and traffic safety through the optimization ofuniform vehicle lighting and safety systems. The creation of commonvisual and lighting standards for motor vehicle braking, turning orhazard alerts, particularly in the form of solutions that canintercommunicate between multiple vehicles to more smoothly conveyslowing or arising hazardous conditions to following drivers will have agreater positive impact on highway safety than do today's variety ofunrelated designs and visual subsystems. The present invention allowssuch standardization and functional optimization for road safety andoperations, while at the same time opening up greater opportunities forvehicle design creativity, product styling, branding, and free marketexpression. The possibilities are unlimited.

One of several possible locations for the electronics package whichenables the present invention is indicated at 660. In practice, theentire unit would, in terms of today's technology, be roughly the sizeof a paperback book and could be located almost anywhere.

A roof location is indicated at 712 for the download antenna to receiveboth content and delivery instructions from antennas in parking garages,residences or on the open highway. An upload antenna is indicated at 715for transmitting on-board data and information relating to in-fieldcontent requests and deliveries to network access points formeasurement, accountability, confirmation and compensation. Theseantennas can be combined into a single unit or can be placedindividually in numerous locations on moving objects. A possiblelocation for the receiver which detects encoded content requestsbroadcast from other vehicles, as well as a potential location for arear-looking proximity sensor (which is further described in FIG. 7), isindicated at 744. The vehicle spacing technology of the presentinvention, described hereinabove, enables display 760 to produce a color“spot” or visual target in the area 765, which then changes color (fromgreen, through amber, to red) to encourage drivers to close up andposition themselves at the optimum distance for viewing content and forthe closest practical spacing between vehicles in an effort to conservelane area, based on their precise vehicle types.

A front-mounted location is shown for the code transmitter 742 whichsends VIN numbers, encoded user profiles and content requests, orcombinations thereof, generally forward to a variety of vehicles orstationary objects for the purpose of selecting and queuing content fromtheir internal or integral system data bases. Transmitter 742 could alsobe used to transmit video data from the requesting (viewing) vehicle fordisplay reproduction on such other vehicles or on surrounding fixed ormobile objects which are equipped to interact with the presentinvention.

A general position is indicated for the optical sensor 1820, which readstraffic signal light color transitions and cross traffic flows as partof the Intersection Clock 1800. The Intersection Clock 1800 is anindependent system which determines the time available for the displayof video content at times vehicles are paused in traffic, and generallyat times vehicles are stopped for traffic intersections. Optical sensor1820 would be placed at or above eye level to the vehicle's operatorand, in the case of the land-based moving object 650, could beintegrated into the back side of the interior center rear view mirrorcase, as is often the case with headlamp sensors in contemporarypassenger cars.

FIGS. 7-10 illustrate a low-cost flat panel embodiment of the presentinvention in a SUV 651. This application represents a non-optimizedversion of the present invention, suitable only for the limitedproduction conversion of existing vehicles rather than fully-integratedOEM production. The basic elements comprising an aftermarket body panelconversion are shown as: a flat panel video display 761; a sheet metalor composite structural shell or pan 763, which provides both structureand protection for the electronic components; and a glass or plasticprotective shroud 766, which both seals and keeps the video display 761clean and secure. These elements are separately assembled, then mountedin various types of body panels from current production, after whichthey will be weather tested and final checked for electronicperformance. The electronics package is shown at 690 and is described inmore detail in a later section. Additional components may be requiredand depend upon the types of vehicle and installation required. FIGS.7-10 show four views of a typical installation an SUV type vehicle. Allof the examples indicated in FIGS. 7 through 16 represent conversions ofexisting production automotive body panels as opposed to installationson an original equipment assembly line. The intent is to address thislower cost, lower volume market as an interim step in bringing theinvention to market at an earlier date and at more affordabledevelopment costs.

Two types of installations for SUVs are shown in FIGS. 7-10, a verticalmount in the sheet metal portion of the lower rear hatch (FIGS. 7-8,10), and a horizontal mount which is viewed through the SUV's rearwindow (FIGS. 9-10). Both are designed to provide excellent viewingsightlines with respect to the occupants of a following (viewing)vehicle without consuming significant amounts of interior space orvehicle utility in the host SUV. A vertical installation is indicated at767, and is preferred if there are no inherent obstacles such as anexternally mounted spare tire (as shown in FIGS. 9-10). The horizontalvideo panel mount, shown at 768, can fold out of the way in the eventlarge cargo must be carried. When in position, however, the displayshown with mount 768 directs its video image upward into a partiallysilvered mirror, actually a flat glazed panel 769, where it is reflectedrearward for viewing through the SUVs rear window. Since panel 769 ispartially silvered on its lower (front) surface, it reflects a cleanimage and the driver's rear vision is unobstructed. The picture imageoutput at the flat screen is, of course, reversed electronically forthis application. For cargo access or maintenance, the mirror panel 769swings away against the overhead as shown in position 771.

Today's off-the-shelf displays can perform the display functions nearlyas well as the more advanced displays discussed herein and perform on anear-cost effective basis within the proposed business models. It is asimple matter to modify the aft hatch of a common SUV to incorporate aconventional flat screen television or monitor into its non-glazed sheetmetal portion. It is also quite reasonable to position a flat screenmonitor horizontally (on its back facing up), then place a partiallysilvered mirror at roughly a 45 degree angle above this display so thatthe image can be viewed through the rear window of the SUV withoutcompromising the driver's rear view through this same rear window asalso shown above and in FIGS. 12-13 and 15-16. Such a mounting retainsthe display within the vehicle, protected from weather and vandalism,and does not require modification of the external sheet metal surfaces.The mirror and sightline bending solution represents a novelinstallation of a large scale flat-panel display in a contemporaryvehicle.

FIGS. 11-13 illustrate a general embodiment of the present invention ina passenger sedan or taxi 653. The most common installation for sedansor taxis will most likely be the vertical trunk mount 767. However,until vehicle licensing, plate lighting and registration issues areaddressed, the rear license plates will need to be relocated to providea full width display as shown at 773 in FIG. 11. Again, this unitcomprises a structural pan and a video panel assembly 775 along with aprotective weatherseal glazing 766. These installations would be made,fully tested and color-matched to vehicles to special purchase order.Installations would then be performed in only minutes by removing theoriginal trunk (which would later be converted to a video display) andby installing the electronics package 690, along with wiring, into thevehicle's power and control systems. It is anticipated that the displaysystem (which is normally on when the vehicle is operating) could beseparately controlled by the driver and that such control would beexercised via a handheld remote which interacts directly withelectronics package 690. This package, as will be later seen, containsthe upload/download antennas, the central processor, and the hard drivefor content and delivery instruction storage, along with supportingsystems, sensors and drivers to control the video display. In FIGS.12-13, a horizontal interior mounting 768 (like the SUV) is shownbeneath the rear window on what is termed the package shelf. Again, apartially silvered or one-way mirror 769 allows the reversed video imageto be properly viewed from the vehicle's exterior without obstruction tothe driver's sightlines through the sedan's rear window.

FIGS. 14-16 illustrate a general embodiment of the present invention ina station wagon 656. Again, the vertical mount full assembly 775 isshown before installation in the lower sheet metal of the stationwagon's rear hatch, with its protective glazing cover at 766. As asecure alternative without the necessity of modifying any exterior bodypanels whatsoever, a flat panel display can be easily mounted on theinterior of the station wagon with minimal infringement on the vehicle'scargo capacity below the window line with a horizontal mount 768, in thesame configuration as in the SUV. The partially silvered mirror is shownagain at 769 (in both side and end views), and will swing away in theevent more interior space is required. Again, interior installations arenot the optimum solutions as with fully integrated new vehicleproduction, but they are viable for the operation of a robust conversionmarket which will allow the users of new or used production vehicles torealize significant revenue streams from their own motor vehicles andthe present invention early on. As before, the electronics package 690to drive either of the display installations is also shown.

In terms of market size for the aftermarket conversion segment of thepresent invention, the applicant envisions an orderly phase-in based onthe upfitting of video-equipped interchangeable body panels for the mostpopular makes and models of current production vehicles. Later, thesepanels (such as rear hatches and doors, trunk lids and pickup trucktailgates) will likely be offered as options through new car dealershipsand sold in the same way as any other high-end automotive accessory.Eventually, when it becomes apparent that the present invention cangenerate significant revenue for all vehicle owners—indeed, incomeswhich can virtually pay for the purchase of the vehicle—the presentinvention will find its way into full original equipment manufacturingfor motor vehicles and will be mass-marketed accordingly.

The present invention would be covered under traditional automotive andproperty insurance just as any other automotive component. As aremovable panel, the present invention is easily replaced in the eventof impact damage, theft, or other types of loss. Theft, at least for thepurposes of generating revenue for the display of content, is not likelyto yield success for the thief due to the integral safeguards of thenetwork, discussed elsewhere. In terms of cost, such a product mighttoday add, conservatively, $2,000 to the base price of a vehicle whenfully installed. Normally, in the world of automobiles, this would betotally unacceptable but this happens to be a revenue-producingcomponent. Using the simple income streams previously established andproven for the display of non-video vehicle advertising—and even withoutthe commanding visual performance or the extraordinary flexibility ofdemographic and proximity hyper-relevant targeting—the present inventioncould completely pay for itself in less than 10 months and then producepositive cash flow for its owner. Meanwhile, the costs for converting toa vehicle containing a system according to the present invention wouldbe virtually unnoticed in the financed monthly purchase or leasepayments.

The applicant is unaware of the existence of any commercially-viable,low cost panel conversion alternative capable of generating revenue forthe mass-market and general driving population through the display ofhyper-relevant video advertising on moving objects, let alone thetransmission of audio sounds to viewing vehicles, the subsequent controlof such content by said viewing vehicles and the electronicdistribution, measurement, engagement tracking and the later downloadingof mass-market, ad hoc collected information together withowner/operator compensation.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram depicting electronic vehicle packages for thepresent invention. With respect to land-based vehicles, New VehicleProduction is represented at 650, and Pre Existing Vehicles arerepresented at 655. Inside each New Production Vehicle is an electronicspackage 660, which has been incorporated into the vehicle's complementof electronics. Also standard is an external video display 760, shown inthe embodiment as a rear-facing configuration, intended for viewing by afollowing vehicle, although side panel or frontal viewing isanticipated. Video imagery 764 is viewable by the occupants of afollowing (viewing) moving object.

The Pre Existing Vehicle 655 also has an on-board electronics package680; however, it does not have an integrated video display. It ispossible, as previously discussed, for such owners to purchase modularor add-on video displays so that they can benefit from the advertisingdisplay revenue opportunities. Such displays, however, are not likely tohave the high degree of integration of a full Production Vehicle.

Looking first at the New Vehicle Production package, note theforward-looking signal 740 transmitted from each vehicle depicted.Signal 740 is directed generally forward from code transmitter 742, andtypically contains content requests (as previously discussed) comprisingencoded specifications about the specific VIN including its brand, make,model, and year, and therefore its physical dimensions, perhaps itscolor, method of purchase (buy vs. lease), whether or not it is a rentalcar, its home state of registration, perhaps even data relating to itsmileage or condition. Many options are possible and this data can beinterpreted into a wealth of valuable cues for marketers. Signal 740also sends encoded “content requests” based on user codes and profilesfor drivers and passengers who have completed them and who have engagedtheir user names at user selector 780 which enables such “requests” tobe included in the VIN's mobile broadcast. A Pre Existing Vehicle 655 iscapable of broadcasting a similar signal, shown at 750. However, as anoption, transmitter 742 can be configured to transmit digital packetscomprising 6, 10, 15, 20, or 30 second commercial video spots over shortdistances for immediate queuing and display on a viewed vehicle. Undermost circumstances, transmitter 742 only needs to transmit DMV and usercode content requests for the purpose of selecting and queuing contentfrom the on board library of a viewed (display) vehicle. However, inunusual or special cases where specific content may not available in aviewed vehicle's database, content can drawn from the viewing vehicleand be transmitted wirelessly for display if both vehicles are soequipped.

Numerous means exist to transmit and receive such wireless signals (RF,optical, acoustical), any of which may vary in wavelength, strength,range, spread, duration, modulation, or encoding, and while suchvariations may be dictated by venue, by the type of moving objects, bythe numbers or speeds of moving objects, by weather conditions, by cost,by manufacturer, by federal or local regulations, or by the override orintegration requirements with other systems and factors, it isanticipated that such signals will not interfere with othertransmissions and comprise a roughly a horizontal spread pattern andrange generally consistent with that of standard vehicle headlampspreads used in night driving. In other words, the strongest signal willbe transmitted straight ahead, in the direction a moving object istraveling, while the strength of that signal will fall off gradually toeither side. In this way, VIN and user codes can be simultaneouslyreceived from following vehicles in differing strengths from side toside, but receiver 744 will always favor the strongest signal, which istypically from the moving object which is immediately rearward in thesame path or traffic lane. It is further anticipated that to accommodatecurved road conditions, RF transmission is spread laterally by eitherelectronic or mechanical means (for example, by linking a highlydirectional antenna to the vehicle's steering as is done increasinglywith turning headlamps, except electronically rather than mechanically)so that content requests are not merely directed forward, but also inthe direction of the anticipated path, curve, or lane change.

Looking first at New Vehicle Installations 600, we see incoming contentrequests represented by signals 740 (750 for Pre Existing Vehicles),received at receiver 744, where they are passed on to decoder 746. Oncedecoded, this information is sent to central processor 722, where it ispolled and matched with previously established marketing criteria whichin turn permits the selection and queuing of hyper-relevant ads, publicservice, or personal content from hard drive 716. If signal 744 containsdigital information for the reproduction of video, it will be decoded assuch at 746, processed at 722, and sent to the display drivers 762, forpresentation based on previously established delivery protocols.

Before content is released from on-board hard drive 716, two importantthings must occur. First, the amount of time available for a display ofcontent must be determined; however, this is optional. Second, thatcontent must be reviewed at 722 for any overriding priorities, such asPublic Service Alerts, Proximity Priorities, Personal Priorities, or LawEnforcement Priorities, any of which may preempt normal commercialmessages. The task of determining the available time for contentdeliveries is done via the Intersection Clock 1800. Since traffic stoplights represent ideal times for content deliveries, it is important toknow the timing of the traffic lights at a particular location, that is,i.e. when the light will change from red to green, and at what point inthe traffic light sequence a vehicle equipped with the present inventionhas arrived. The Intersection Clock 1800 is an electronics componentthat uses a vehicle's on board GPS system (or its own internal GPS typeof system) to identify a specific location or intersection on a citystreet or roadway where infrastructures (such as traffic signals orfreeway onramp monitors) are used to regulate traffic. Once it hasidentified a given location using the GPS, the Intersection Clock 1800checks its own database to see if there is any stored information thatwill provide the signal timing sequence for this particularintersection. Next, it searches for incoming radio signals from othervehicles equipped with the present invention already in thatintersection in an effort to obtain or confirm the traffic signalsequence and to synchronize its clock with any other vehicles alreadythere. If none exist, the Intersection Clock 1800 will then open alocation file and create a traffic signal signature for that venue andwill store that data in its on board database. It will do this usingoptical sensor 1820 which reads sequential amber, red, and green lightchanges and records the timing between these changes for all trafficflow directions. Once these timings are known, processor 722 can selectand queue content corresponding to the remaining times available. TheIntersection Clock 1800 is explained in FIG. 35, and content prioritiesare explained in FIG. 31.

While being constantly monitored for any incoming priority overrides atcentral processor 722, queued content is checked against the on-boardspeed/motion sensor 774 and the on-board proximity sensor 770, whichestablishes a vehicle range signal 772, necessary to calculate theproximity and the relative positions and closing speeds between a viewedand a viewing vehicle. When previously established delivery criteria aremet (content, time, place, speed, position, priorities, and previousdeliveries), the selected content is released to display drivers 762 andto audio transmitter 725. The display drivers send video content todisplay 760, which enables the video imagery indicated at 764. If audiohas been requested from the viewing VIN, it is synchronized to the videoimagery and transmitted wirelessly from transmitter 725 directly to therequesting VIN's FM radio via vehicle interface 730. Alternatively,codes representing the requested audio content are sent wirelessly tothe viewing vehicle via antenna 712 and transceiver 714 to hard drive716, where they are used to queue the audio content corresponding to thevideo, and where it is then converted at processor 722 and delivered tovehicle interface 730 for reproduction over the requesting VIN'son-board sound system.

Two antennas are indicated with respect to the instant invention, one at712, another at 715. Incoming antenna 712 receives transmission signalsfor the downloading of content and data via transceiver 714 for EncodedOwner/Operator Profiles 116; General Content Distribution 150; PublicService Content (road/weather hazard alerts, upgrades, etc.) 152;hyper-relevant ad Content 153; Driving Population Personal andFleet/Government Public Service Content 154; and special programminginstructions for ad hoc communications between vehicles 156. Antenna 715enables the uploading of data and information gathered in the fieldwhich has been saved and stored on hard drive 716. Such informationincludes, but is not limited to: all Logged Content Exposure 160; LoggedPublic Service Exposure 162; Logged Advertising Requests from specificVINs 163; and Logged Advertising Exposure 164. Antenna 715 also enablesthe uploading of ad hoc research collected and stored on moving objects'hard drives (or on board memories) while in the field. Antennas 712, 715can be combined into a single unit, depending on system design and themethods of distribution, and can be placed in a variety of locations onmoving objects.

All content, along with distribution instructions (to whom and underwhat circumstances it is to be delivered), is uploaded from theDistribution unit 800, to hard drive 716 via transceiver 714. Suchcontent has been previously and precisely encoded to conform toestablished advertising, public service, or personal content encodingguidelines and delivery instructions. Likewise, VIN information and thepersonal profiles associated with it are similarly encoded and uploadedat transceiver 714 to hard drive 716.

When content delivery is requested within a specific area (e.g., by asponsor of a convention or exhibitor at a convention at the downtownconvention center), these coordinates are wirelessly loaded via theInternet, along with the content, into the hard drive of all VINsoperating within that physical area, for example, citywide. When centralprocessor 722 receives information from a VIN's on board GPS systemindicating that a vehicle is entering a designated area for contentdisplay, it automatically processes such requests and queues thatcontent for display. Normally, advertising content is overridden by anyemergency or a vital public service alert, should these occur in acommon venue at the same time.

The on board vehicle power supply is indicated at 726. This would have abattery back up system to assure that license and registration displaysare always operational and that the vehicle systems remain useable inthe event of public service communications emergencies.

A vehicle interface is indicated at 730. This is a systems integrationcomponent which assures the proper interaction of the present inventionwith other components from standard mass production. Typical exampleswould be an interface which assures that incoming audio linked to avideo to be displayed on a viewed vehicle is properly routed to theaudio system of a viewing vehicle, that content displayed on a specificVIN's external display can also be monitored on that vehicle's internaldisplay(s), or that a GPS navigational system, if separate, for example,is properly linked to the present invention's central processor 722 andto the Intersection Clock 1800.

At 780, the User Selector permits a Registered Owner and, if desired,any member of a family or business, to activate his personal preferenceswith regard to that VIN's outgoing content requests. Again, theindividual user names, passwords, preferences, and their individualpriorities are maintained online and are authorized for use only on aspecific VIN and then only by its System Administrator (usually theRegistered Owner). The human interface will likely be a small touchscreen which presents the user names that are currently active for theVIN (in other words, a text or icon listing of the individuals whoseprofiles are currently active and influencing the display of advertisingand communications on other moving or stationary objects in thevicinity). Such a display might optionally indicate the relativepercentages to which each user influences outgoing content requests andpossibly which user's content requests are currently being displayed.

Linked to User Selector 780 is the Impulse Request unit 782. Thiscomponent stores authorized user names along with securely encodedcontact and credit information to facilitate on-the-fly communicationsand purchases by the vehicle's registered occupants while in the field.If a teen sees a commercial for a new skateboard, for example, he onlyneeds to touch the screen next to his name to have information on thatproduct sent to his email address, said address having been previouslystored. He can just as easily have it sent from his mom's car to hispals. If mom spots an ad for a new book, or even a new blouse, she canbuy those items at the touch of a button because her creditinformation—and even her clothing size—would have been previouslyencoded and stored. When she gets home, confirmation of her purchasewill be on her computer.

At 794 is the Instant Messenger. How many times have you wanted to sendback a message to someone who is following too closely? Or create aspecial sign for school, a ball game, a sale, event, or a play? Howabout instant, easy to remove bumper stickers? The Instant Messengerallows operators to pre-store text messages and special designs whichcan be called up and presented at the push of a button or verbalcommand. It also allows instant signs to be typed in using an optionalkeyboard or through the vehicle interface 730, to receive input fromcell phones or PDAs; however, software in central processor 722continues to monitor all entries and precludes any offensive orobjectionable words or content based on established system standards andpractices.

The VIN/Plate Report 795 allows users to temporarily reveal anothervehicle's license plate or identification and to cause it to remaindisplayed until a requesting VIN moves out of range or disengages itsrequest. This report function can additionally record that license plateand VIN number for later access by the Registered Owner meaning that noone any longer has to search for a pen and paper to write down anotherdriver's license number. If there is an accident involving multiplevehicles equipped with the present invention (such as a hit and run or aparking lot impact while you are away), such impacts are read by theproximity sensor 770, which then polls and collects information on allof the VINs in the immediate vicinity along with a time stamp, a GPSlocation and the speed of the host vehicle at the time. That data isthen recorded into the hard drive for later downloading and potentialuse by law enforcement or insurance.

A Law Enforcement chip 748 can be programmed to enable a variety offeatures. First, this chip allows external law enforcement units (suchas a pursuing Highway Patrol car or a helicopter overhead) to overridethe active external displays of a vehicle equipped with the presentinvention. Such overrides might cause a vehicle to reveal itself asstolen, for example, assuming such a report has been filed by itsRegistered Owner. In another example, surfaces on the subject vehiclemight be caused to pulse or illuminate animated warnings in the event ofsuch a pursuit, or perhaps to act as a primary source of illumination inthe event of an open road accident or a disaster. The Law Enforcementchip can also sense tampering or hacking within the system and tooptionally place a prominent advisory on the vehicle's external display,or to even lock certain systems including, but not limited to,suspending compensation to users who are in violation of the law.Technologies unrelated to the present invention are being explored tomonitor and confirm erratic driving behaviors which could indicatedrivers who may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. By linkingsuch alternative technologies via the vehicle interface 730, and byfurther confirming such behaviors via proximity sensor 770 andspeed/motion sensor 774, the Law Enforcement chip could permit anoverride of operational displays to replace them with an “erraticvehicle warning” designed to warn other vehicles or alert lawenforcement in the area.

Thus far, we've learned that people don't really object to viewing adsabout subject matter they are interested in. We've learned that kidsembrace advertising when it deals with things that are part of theirlifestyles and are curious about. We've seen that it is possible forconsumers to create profiles that tell advertisers “who they are” and“what they want” so that marketers are able to select, design, anddeliver hyper-relevant content to those individuals on a time- andlocation-specific basis. We've learned that content can be distributedto moving objects where it can be stored for future use or presented inreal time on external video displays and through the audio systems ofother moving objects. And we've learned that consumers can becompensated for using the exteriors of their own moving objects ascommercial video platforms. So, with all this, it's certainly possibleto apply the same technologies to present hyper-targeted content oninternal video displays 765 inside moving objects as well.

Imagine a high-end executive taxi or a commercial SUV that is able topresent hyper-relevant video displays both inside and outside the samevehicle and can accommodate content requests simultaneously by separateparties, one party outside in the traffic environment, the other insideriding as a passenger. Outside the Executive SUV, surrounding vehicleswould interact as previously explained, requesting contentelectronically which is presented on the external surfaces of thevehicle. Such displays would most likely be placed on the rear facingExecutive SUV surfaces so they can be easily viewed by vehiclesfollowing. They could also be placed on the sides of the Executive SUVso they can be easily seen by pedestrians on sidewalks or by theoccupants of other vehicles moving in parallel traffic lanes. But theinside of the vehicle would be configured differently. The interiorwould be more of a surround sound mobile theater tailored to combine alive travel experience through the presentation of highly-targetedinformation or advertising. Basic targeting would be done on a time andvenue-specific basis; in other words, when passing retail stores, scenicattractions, and similar points of interest, any of these might befurther described in informative detail or in graphic terms to enhanceone's travel experience. Imagine displays embedded in glass that couldsuperimpose graphics and information on the insides of windows so thatsuch images would relate to, and in fact almost be superimposed over,passing real-world environments, events, and surroundings.Alternatively, envision a center-mounted touch screen console thatcarries a real-time camera-produced view of the passing cityscape, whereall an occupant has to do is touch the screen with a finger to obtainreal time information on those surroundings: the interiors ofrestaurants with menus, the inventory of special boutiques, or, perhaps,previews for new Broadway shows. Now envision a tiny wireless devicethat a person might carry in a pocket or purse which, like the harddrive in a moving object, is able hold all of your personal user codesand profiles and can transmit those codes via antenna 712, transceiver714, and processor 722 to content hard drive 716 in your Executive SUV,so that hyper-relevant content that relates specifically to you and yourinterests can be queued and presented on the vehicle's interiordisplays.

Such a personal mobile device has been disclosed in the applicant'snonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 11/552,932, filed Oct. 25,2006, entitled: “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING REVENUE FROM THEDISTRIBUTION OF HYPER-RELEVANT ADVERTISING THROUGH PERMISSIVE MINDREADING, PROXIMITY ENCOUNTERS AND DATABASE AGGREGATION”, incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety, and is referred to herein as MMx.MMx is able to receive, store, poll, extract, and transmit data andinformation in a similar manner to the moving object electronicspackages depicted in FIG. 17 at 660 and 680. When an MMx device isprogrammed with information about a person's interests and objectives,it can then communicate this information to other MMx devices, or to anyvehicle or stationary object that is equipped with the presentinvention. In other words, by carrying an MMx mobile device, pedestrianscan interact with moving objects in the much the same way as movingobjects interact with each other. By electronically telling nearbymoving objects who they are and what they want, pedestrians can have thesame kinds of hyper-relevant ads and other types of informationpresented to them on the exterior of nearby vehicles. If a person withsuch a mobile device rides inside a Pre Existing Vehicle that isn'tequipped with the present invention, that mobile device can engage withother moving objects in its path that are equipped with the inventionand can then request and control the display of hyper-relevant contenton that vehicle's exterior displays. At the same time, an individualcarrying a properly programmed MMx device can ride inside the kind ofExecutive SUV described above, and at that user's option, convert thatvehicle's normally targeted content into hyper-relevant contentdeliveries. Thus, a simple cross-town trip in a luxury SUV equipped withthe present invention now becomes a rich guided tour like none other,because it is pointing out features and details of personal interest andcuriosity. Such experiences would resolve themselves through the soundsystems of the Executive SUV and a complement of advanced interior videodisplays 765. Such limited production fleet and special purpose vehiclesare anticipated as a normal part of test marketing and full productionramp up for the present invention.

Early Production

Early deployments are likely to be prototypes of Production Vehicles andspecially designed fleet applications such as taxis, passenger-carryingcommercial vans, SUVs, and crossover vehicles. It is also anticipatedthat early introductions of the present invention will be in theaftermarket conversion segment in which current, new production vehiclesare upfitted with easily exchanged body panels (such as rear hatch/doorson SUVs and tailgates on trucks) which replace the original componentswith those having built-in video displays. An electronics packagecontaining a full hard drive and all telematics systems would be placedin a convenient spot elsewhere in the vehicle. This aftermarket packagewould, in one embodiment, include a radio transmitter with a directionalantenna to send short range FM signals to a following (viewing) vehiclewhich would then be able to enjoy sounds through its own internal soundsystem, synchronized to the visual presentation on the aft display ofthe aftermarket conversion vehicle.

Using today's off-the-shelf technology, one can easily assemble anoperating version of the described invention in the form of anaftermarket conversion. The simplest implementation is that of modifyingany of the large numbers of aft-facing body panel and glass elementswhich comprise contemporary passenger sedans, pickup trucks, or SUVs.Most of these have hinged rear hatches which, by virtue of thoseattachments, are easily removed from the main body structure. This meansthat a low cost-of-entry business opportunity exists for conversions. Inpractice, this would involve a new vehicle owner who, after placing anorder, would drive to an assembly station where his original hatch,tailgate, or trunk would be removed and be replaced by a modified orremanufactured product containing the display technology of the presentinvention. The flat-screen video display and wiring harness would betypically incorporated into the sheet metal portion of the aft doorassemblies. These components could also be installed on the interiors ofcertain vehicles or on the horizontal surfaces of interior packageshelves or deck lids. These are shown more specifically in FIGS. 6-16.Metallic structures would be modified to accept the new video display,displacing, if necessary, latch handles or rear window wipers. A tinted,formed, and tempered glazing panel would be fitted over the videodisplay for both weather and vandalism protection and to provide awell-integrated appearance. The entire assembly would then beweather-sealed and tested. A wiring harness would be attached via aconnector to an electronics package installed, in most cases, beneaththe rear seats or cargo shelf of the vehicle. This package wouldcontain, among other things, a hard drive for the storage of advertisingand display content, a central processor to control contentdistribution, a speed and vehicle motion sensor to govern contentdisplays, an aft-looking proximity sensor to determine the presence of afollowing vehicle and to track its range and closing speeds, a wirelessreceiver to receive content with distribution instructions, a wirelesstransmitter to later upload in-field content delivery histories to thenetwork and, optionally, an optical drive for the manual loading ofcontent and control software. There would also be a hardware interfacelinking the electronics package to an on-board GPS navigational systemfor the distribution of location-sensitive content. The package wouldinclude an audio transmitter to send a corresponding audio channel to aviewing vehicle, either to its standard FM radio or via a special radiofor receiving short range, encoded directional audio content signals.All of this would be controlled by the central processor and powered bythe vehicle's on board power supply. When completed, the finishedproduct need not appear substantially different from its original designexcept that it would contain a unique revenue-generating video displayinside its newly attached rear hatch, tailgate, trunk, or door.

As an added feature, the electronics package might include an instantmessenger provision that would allow a vehicle owner to place personalmessages on the display at certain times. It is anticipated that suchmessaging would be submitted online and would therefore be screened forstandards and practices and for any unwelcome content.

The greatest benefit in such an early deployment of the presentinvention is that it can quickly generate revenue for the owners ofaftermarket conversions. Such revenue will quickly pay for theconversion itself, then go on to make the purchase and operation of thevehicle practically cost free, a significant accomplishment at a timedrivers and owners are strained by increasing fuel costs and mountingtraffic. Indeed, the presence of worsening bumper-to-bumper traffic setsthe stage for the present invention in that registered owners can now becompensated for their wasted time and fuel expenditures in traffic eachyear simply by becoming part of a commercial television advertisingplatform, one capable of totally offsetting their costs for fuel,leases, or purchases.

Vehicle owners will be paid based upon the number of impressions theydeliver relative to the value of the demographic and the market served.As full scale production emerges, increasing numbers of vehiclesequipped with the present invention will be able to interact. However,until there are large numbers of interacting vehicles, the advertisingdisplayed on them will remain relatively generic, more often targeted tospecific locations, demographic groups, or times of day, rather than tothe specific interests of participating individuals. With increasing newvehicle installations 660, and more Pre Existing (aftermarket)installations 680, fully targeted and hyper-relevant advertising willemerge. Until that happens, the Applicant anticipates that the use ofMMx-type devices will help enable the transition to full hyper-relevantpublic advertising and personal messaging. And, as previously mentioned,it is possible that business models will emerge to allow the RegisteredOwners of Pre Existing Vehicles 655 to be compensated for requesting andviewing hyper-relevant advertising. It is also conceivable, therefore,that the users of MMx-type devices could be compensated by advertisersfor viewing targeted and hyper-relevant content.

Continuing with FIG. 17, Aftermarket Installations 680 are similar toNew Vehicle Production installations 660, but do not include a videodisplay, display drivers, audio transmitters, GPS, or as large aprocessor, hard drive, or memory. Personal (user code and profile)content is received for storage in a similar manner to full productionunits via antenna 712, and includes the downloading of General PersonalPreferences for non-display vehicles 118; the downloading of ContentPreferences 155; the downloading of Public Service Content (road/weatherhazard alerts, etc.) 152; Ad Content downloads 153; and any specialsoftware or instructions 156 relating to the ad hoc collection of data(normally vehicle-to-vehicle) for widespread monitoring andmeasurements. All downloaded content is stored on hard drive 719 and isprocessed at 718, where it is converted into encoded electrical signalsfor forward-looking transmission via code transmitter 752. Signal 750 isreceived by other vehicles equipped with the present invention via theirreceivers 744.

Vehicle Power Supply 726; Vehicle Interface 730; User Selector 790;Impulse Request unit 782; Instant Messenger 794; and VIN/Plate Report795 serve the same functions in Aftermarket units as in New ProductionUnits. If equipped with an interior on board display 765, suchaftermarket installations could optionally present hyper-relevantadvertising to their occupants, subject to safety standards for interiorvideo displays.

After field use, processor 718 uploads to the network all in-fieldcontent requests that have been stored on hard drives 719 viaupload/download transceiver 714 and antenna 715. In so doing, thefollowing types of information are sent to the Compensation unit 900:Logged In-Field Content Requests from non-display vehicles 165; LoggedAdvertising Requests by VIN, by venue and time 163; Logged Personal UseAuthorizations (including any view blocking or personal ads) 167; andLogged Personal Use Exposures or impressions 168 by VIN, venue, andtimes.

FIGS. 18A-18B show a block diagram depicting a Distribution model 800for the present invention. This business unit (shown here separated fromthe compensation unit for clarity) is defined in terms of the elementsessential for receiving, processing, and delivering a variety of contenttypes to various moving or fixed objects in the field. Secondarily,FIGS. 18A-18B suggest potential funding relationships with the keyparties to such a venture. At 110, potential incoming funding isindicated from various interested Government Agencies to Developers,Suppliers and Manufacturers of moving objects. At 115, the same is shownfrom the Advertising community, which could include large mediacompanies or the advertisers themselves. By and large, however, it maybe the makers and sellers of moving objects themselves that wouldsupport investment in such a Distribution entity, and that is shown aspotential investment 128 and ongoing system upgrades 125 as part ofproduction.

Across the top of FIG. 18A are represented the primary external usergroups, comprising Government Agencies 200, Advertisers 300, the generalDriving Population 400, and Fleet and Government Users 500. Each ofthese participating groups, which could be comprised of many sub-groupscontributing to content production, submits such content in the same waythey would if they were placing content with platforms such as networktelevision. Participating Government Agencies thus submit public servicecontent, such as state and local signage, hazard advisories, federalemergency content or local highway communications as well as vehiclelicensing and registration matters at 250. Commercial advertisingcontent submittals of all types are shown at 350. The input of OperatorProfiles and Personal Content for the Driving Population is shown at114, while the submission of Profiles and Content for Commercial Fleetand Government Users is shown at 116. Note that Government use has beendepicted at both 250 and 116. Although Government use will resolveitself in many ways and applications, the depictions here assume thatthe uses anticipated at 250 relate more to regulatory issues andoversight in such areas public transportation and safety or highwaydevelopment, whereas government use at 116 is presumed to be morevehicular in nature, such as law enforcement, border patrol, GSA, USPostal, and similar applications.

The first step in processing incoming content for Distribution ismonitoring it for conformance to established content guidelines,standards and practices. This stage addresses both the message and themessenger in the sense that the content must meet approved contentguidelines and the technical specifications required by the deliveryplatform, similar to the kinds of content and technical requirementsthat have to be met in configuring media for network television oroutdoor billboards. These steps are shown at 802 for Government Agenciesand at 804 for commercial Advertisers. Processing for the DrivingPopulation is shown at 806 and for Fleet/Government Users at 808. Eachof these steps involves the computer screening and approval of userprofiles, the approval of user contracts and the monitoring ofsubsequently submitted personal and business content. Methods andprocedures for such monitoring and approvals are well known in theindustry and ample precedents exist in parallel forms of media buys andcontent delivery. However, it is anticipated that increasinglysophisticated forms of image recognition and content ratingmethodologies will evolve, as will an increased use of the Internet forall delivery and accounting functions, which reduces the need for andcosts of human intervention.

In contrast to major Government and Advertiser users, the DrivingPopulation and Fleet/Business users will engage in the creation ofexacting user profiles in order to define their terms of service, thedelivery of their content and their use of the platform. Online profilesare completed by all consumers and businesses reflecting the essential“who I am” and “what I want” (WIA/WIW) qualities defined in thepreviously disclosed MMx patent application. They next enter intoservice agreements which define the responsibilities and limitations ofeach party, establish fees and costs and the range of potential earningsfor each user type and variation. These steps are indicated at 806 forthe Driving Population and at 808 for Fleet users. These are thenbrought together at 840 where Owner/Operator Profiles (which define userinterests, wants, needs, and experiences together with their demographicand psychographic data, provided in non-identifiable formats whichinclude no personal information) are approved and encoded to allowmarketers to correlate specific types of hyper-relevant advertisingcontent with specific combinations of user codes.

The next step, at 842, is the Review and Approval of Owner/Operatordeveloped content. After content is approved, it is passed through thesystem for delivery encoding (described below). Once contract accountsare established, they are routinely processed at 854, Automatic ContentMonitoring, where they are automatically monitored forconsumer-requested changes, compliance, and consistency, all bycomputers programmed to also isolate and provide alerts for contentnonconformance or contract violations. This business unit 800 willultimately be linked to the Compensation Unit 900 and to any CustomerService components for the enterprise.

The first stage encoding of content following approvals is to determinethe time of delivery; this step is shown at 820 for Public Service andcommercial Ad content and at 844 for the Driving Population andFleet/Government use. Time encoding determines a specific time of daythat content is to be released to any requesting or non-requestingmoving or fixed objects. In nearly all cases, emergency or hazardousroad condition alerts, detours, blockages, flooding, and the like willbe granted a time release which corresponds to the time of the event oremergency. Emergencies, as we will soon learn, are generally alwaysgiven a higher delivery priority over other types of content. Forexample, if there is a traffic accident at a certain intersection and adetour is necessary, the time requirement would extend from the time theaccident is first reported to the traffic response section of thenetwork until the accident has been cleared from the area. If congestionis caused instead by road work that occurs, from 7:30 AM to 3:15 PM on adaily basis, then that is the time encoding that specific alert willcarry. Both of those examples have a delivery priority over commercialadvertising in that immediate area and the graphic nature of the contentitself would be pre-generated and stored on all moving object harddrives likely to be in areas that would need it.

The next step in encoding is for location, or venue, as shown at 822 and846. Venue encoding is, of course, critical for any type of proximityadvertising or location-based communications. These can be in the formof relatively tight coordinates, such as an intersection or a specificaddress, because it will most likely be GPS based, at least initially.It might also be specified as a broader area, for example, as severalcity blocks surrounding a specific location such as a stadium, mall,airport, or theme park.

The third method of encoding is priority encoding which is shown at 824and 848. Again, emergencies are given top priorities over all othertypes of content delivery including paid priorities. An important typeof priority is based of the payment of priority fees, essentially for apreferred delivery priority over other content in high value locations,or times of day, if not both.

The final encoding step is that of determining delivery fees based onthe market value of specific times, places, and priorities that havebeen requested and scheduled. This step is shown at 828 and is notunlike establishing values that are attached to prime time televisionversus programming that airs during the middle of the day or middle ofthe night and varies due to the demographics and viewership at thosetimes. There is no hard value for delivering a marketing message. It isworth something different to everyone. Therefore, any dollar figure ispossible and that value is frequently established in a bid market.

The methods of delivering commercial advertising or public servicecontent to the platform are more consistent and regulated than contentsuch as consumer-generated personal content or small business content. Akey step in determining the costs to consumer and fleet users,therefore, is in determining the actual methods of delivery to theactive requested platforms, as is shown at 850. Such distributions wouldinvolve the Internet together with cable, satellite, or wireless and mayvary widely with locations and available infrastructures. Oncedetermined, however, content from all four basic user groups is uploadedat regular intervals at 830 and 852 to the various distributioninfrastructures, represented at 832.

One vital function for the present invention, once it reaches areasonable level of deployment, is the noninvasive, mass collection ofcontent requests and deliveries by and from all moving objects in thefield at all times of the day and night for any and all purposes. Whatthis information represents, essentially, is any request for content bya moving object (with each moving object able to describe the precisenature, interests, experience and histories of its occupants based onWIA/WIW profiling) by location, by time of day, and by priority. Thisinformation is tracked through any other moving or fixed object whichcan store such a request for later uploading to the network andultimately to the venture entity. However, all such information iscollected in a non-identifiable, privacy-compliant format and,therefore, cannot by itself reveal any confidential or personalinformation on users of the platform. The actual tracking of physicalmovements could only be reconstructed by using computers to link all ofthe requests from a single moving object to all of the other objects orfixed locations it has communicated with, and thereby to create a venuebased “contact map” comprised of time and place, optionally with anyrequests or response to such requests. This is information that ismassively collected and valuable to many kinds of marketers andplanners. However, such tracking would only be reconstructed on aspecifically identifiable party and revealed by the venture entity undera lawful subpoena. The instructions for the general collection of massdata and its insertion for downloading by the platform are shown at 890.

At 880, all documented in-field requests, all logged contentdistributions (or attempted distributions) together with any in-fieldresponses to content deliveries (such as driving to a specific retailerimmediately after being alerted to a “discount sale” at that location)for a requesting (viewing) moving object, are cross-checked by computerwith the corresponding delivering (viewed) moving object. Such datacould further correlate the demographics and interests of drivers andparticipating passengers traveling on various roadways at various timesof the day including the types of vehicles, travel ranges, points oforigin and destination, route variations or detours, even in some casesdocumenting the reasons for such changes; in short, a rich new body ofdata relating to the daily movements of drivers throughout our rural andurban transportation systems and community infrastructures worldwide.This data is then confirmed with the Distribution entity 800 to becertain such data has in fact been distributed into the network and wasactive during those claimed viewing periods. These are important stepsincorporated to prevent the generation of false delivery claims forcompensation, the equivalent of “click fraud” found increasingly in theonline advertising business. This two-way data transfer is indicated at170, as is the forwarding of confirmed delivery information to theCompensation Unit 900.

The aggregate distribution of content is shown at 150 in FIG. 18B. Oncecontent has been uploaded at 830 and 852 and its means of distributionhas been selected via 832, content is distributed via the Internet(cable, DSL), satellite, or wireless networks, or combinations thereof,using electronic distribution infrastructures as indicated at 150 forreceipt and distribution at a multiplicity of potential locations andenvironments. Included are: direct distribution to single familyresidences 860 and/or network access points (NAPs) in neighborhoods viathe Internet, satellite or wireless networks such as WiMax; the same forresidences but to condominiums, apartments, mall complexes or parkinggarages 862; direct distribution using the same infrastructures tooffice buildings, malls, retail stores and commercial, government orpublic service signage installations 864; direct broadcast to busses,trains, fleet commercial and/or public transit routes, airports, trainterminals, docks and major roadways 870; direct broadcast to passengervehicles on the highway via satellite, Internet NAPs or wireless such asWiMax, etc. 868; direct distribution to fleet vehicle parking ormaintenance garages including emergency or temporary sites 866; directto rural or remote locations such as outlaying towns or villages, ruralhighways, harbors, mountain, desert, beach or offshore locations 872; orother types of emerging and popular locations 874 where mobile proximitycommunications or commercial communications is desired or necessary.

The diagram in FIG. 18B further includes an antenna 151, which providesa wireless transmission point (a 2-way NAP or satellite downlink) fortransmitting content, user codes and delivery instructions to othermobile or stationary antennas. A receiving antenna 172 is also present,typically found on moving objects or on stationary objects equipped withthe present invention. Such antennas 172 not only receive contentrequests with user codes and delivery instructions, but also returnencoded confirmations regarding the delivery of content by time andplace along with accurate tracking information which bears on consumerengagement plus encoded data from a multiplicity of moving objectsparticipating in the widespread collection of data on an ad hoc basis.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram depicting the Compensation model of thepresent invention. As previously mentioned, the compensation functionshave been separated here for clarity but would likely remain an integralpart of the Distribution unit 800 or of the primary venture entity.Although this unit can include numerous variables, FIG. 19 suggests abasic and essential flow of information and revenue with which to enablecompensation to be paid to platform users.

This flow begins with composite data downloads from all platformvehicles. Such inflow is referenced at 905 and represents, in thisexample, data downloads from the hard drives of New Production Vehicles660 and from the hard drives of Pre-Existing Vehicles 680. Suchdownloads would also include composite data from the ad hoc collectionof user codes communicated between authorized or programmed moving orfixed objects, indicated at 1140. As previously mentioned, thewidespread collection of such data has been heretofore unavailable. Itsuploading from moving objects to the Distribution unit is shown in FIG.9 at 1160, and its sale to marketers and researchers is indicated at1100.

While the inflow of raw in-field data may vary with vehicle types anddelivery missions, incoming information will fall generally into twocategories: Logged Content Requests from all vehicles (includingPersonal Use Authorizations from non-display vehicles) depicted here at165, and all Logged Content Exposure (including completed or partiallycompleted content deliveries) depicted here at 160. Within each of thesecategories, three content types are shown: For Logged Content Requests165, there are Logged Public Service Requests from Specific VIN Numbers161; Logged Advertising Requests from specific VIN numbers by venue andtime 163; Logged Personal Use Authorizations from specific VIN numbers(including any view blocking or personal ads) 167; and for LoggedContent Exposure 160, there are Logged Public Service Exposure 162;Logged Advertising Exposure 164; and Logged Personal Use Exposure orimpressions by specific VIN, venue and times 168.

This information is next computer cross-checked laterally betweencategories. In other words, between the specific VINs involved, alldocumented Advertising Requests 163 are compared with all documentedAdvertising Exposures 164, thereby confirming both an in-field requestand an exposure (an actual delivery) between these specific VINs, alsoverifiable by time and place. This comparative process is completed bycomputer and only when they are conclusively matched for each contenttype, are they encoded as being confirmed. Thus, at 910, all PublicService Deliveries are confirmed for a specific VIN; at 920, allAdvertising Deliveries are confirmed for a specific VIN; and at 930, allPersonal Use Deliveries are confirmed for a specific VIN.

The next step in this fully automated process is to determine that thiscontent was actually released for distribution by the Distributionentity 800 at the times and with the proper encoding for it to have beenrequested and delivered in the field by the VINs in question based ontheir confirmed interactions. This means that the confirmed contentcollected at 910, 920 and 930 is routed to a Fraud Detection &Compliance Screening unit 940, where it is compared to the originallydistributed data and content codes. This two-way cross-checking of alldata is indicated in FIG. 9 at 170. At the same time, Confirmed Adexposures vs. distributions are indicated at 173; confirmed Personal andFleet/Government exposures vs. distributions are indicated at 174,175;and confirmed Public Use exposures vs. distributions are indicated at182. Why is this cross-checking important?

Click Fraud

As previously mentioned, “click fraud” is a term given to a method ofgenerating clicks (or apparent requests) for ads on the Internet in aneffort falsely tally online “hits” and thereby show interest in thoseitems—or responses to key word selections in search formats—in order toreceive greater payments for those ads by reflecting increased apparentvalue, where, in fact, those ads have not actually been viewed at all.The present invention could be vulnerable to such fraud unlessprecautionary methods are implemented. Imagine, for example, a couple ofteens using their own vehicles, each of which is equipped with thepresent invention. What would prevent them from parking those vehiclesin a driveway for an extended period in which one vehicle was allowed toconstantly request content and another vehicle constantly display thecontent in order to show confirmed viewings or “impressions” and to thenbe paid for these viewings? There are a number of ways to prevent suchfraud—and still others will emerge once such technologies aredeployed—but as in most businesses and systems, combating fraud andassuring security must be a sustained activity. Meanwhile, there are afew basic monitoring and preventative procedures offered by theinvention itself.

First, it is anticipated that such fraud or misuse of the inventionwould, or could, be treated like many infractions of the laws whenoperating moving objects. Such infractions could be linked to a person'sdriver's license in such a way that if you were convicted of such fraud,your right to generate income using the system of the present inventioncould be revoked, just as your driver's license could be suspended. Interms of generating proof of infractions, certain inherent systems existin the invention which could be used to defeat such misuse. For examplehistoric patterns for the actual requesting and delivery of content willbe established over time and will be recognizable by monitoringcomputers set up to do precisely that. The requesting and delivery ofcontent is itself a source of checks and balances. Each request islinked to a specific VIN, thus a pattern of requests from each uniquevehicle is established over time as the vehicles operates (time, place,routes, consistencies, etc.). The same is true for the vehiclesreceiving such requests. Over time a “normal” pattern of requests andresponsive deliveries are stored on each vehicle's hard drive in thesame way as cell phone calls to certain parties are documented andstored for later use in accounting and billing. Furthermore, each suchrequest and responsive delivery is linked not only to the respectiveVINs involved, but to the registered owner of those VINs, and toauthorized use profiles connected to that registered owner which are onfile in that user's account. Thus any sustained misuse can be traced toa specific user as well as to any specific irregular pattern of misuse.Next the precise time and place of each request and each delivery isdocumented via GPS, along with exacting data as to the speed, therelative speed, proximity, attitude and direction of travel for the allof the vehicles involved. Also, of course, the consecutive number ofsimilar requests and deliveries are carefully counted along with theduration of each delivery (since completed deliveries are important tothe quality of service and to ultimate billings and compensation). Thereare also common methods of determining when drivers and passengers areactually inside a vehicle and which seats they are occupying as is usedin seat belt and automotive safety systems. There are further methodswhich enable actual vehicle tracking over time. Thus, in the case of theteens, repetitive requests and deliveries between the same vehicles,which are apparently parked (regardless of their occupants), would placethe event out of the normal “pattern envelope” and content deliveriescould be subject to investigation and possible suspension. When suchvehicles are moving there will be attentive drivers at the wheel andimpressions made at progressive locations would likely be valid. Motion,speed, and proximity sensors within the system can further identifyconditions during content deliveries. When time-linked to GPSinformation, specific time and place correlations can be made, and GPStampering could be easily traced and documented. Indeed, tampering withlinked GPS inputs with respect to a compensation system would probablybe a Federal violation based on anticipated rulemaking for the presentinvention. It is conceivable that a pair of vehicles could follow eachother at slow speeds and then stop, causing a number of content deliveryevents to occur over a prolonged period, but in fact such instancescould also constitute legitimate content impressions or deliveries sincetheir occupants must be attentive and viewing uniquely queuedhyper-relevant content tailored to those drivers. GPS can also identifyrecognizable traffic patterns and relate them to specific environments,such as differentiating bumper-to-bumper traffic on a freeway or asurface street from a pair of vehicles parked in a residentialneighborhood, or alone on a rural highway. Additionally, if required,the Distribution system can compare and confirm surrounding trafficpatterns by electronically reading the movement patterns of adjacenttraffic equipped with the present invention. Again, in terms ofdifferentiating traffic patterns that would be generated over periods ofuse, any repetitive incidence of two or more vehicle VINs whichconsistently request and display content to each other would becomesuspect. It can also be assumed that any great lengths to falsifycontent requests and deliveries between vehicles is going to be far moretrouble that it is worth, will compromise the rights of the registeredowner and (short of tampering or hacking the electronics which aremonitored and protected under alternative criteria) is likely to resultin the actual exposure of content to the persons involved anyway. Afurther barrier against fraudulent claims of content delivery is bycomparing all claimed matched requests and deliveries to the originalcontent uploaded to the network for distribution. Such content alwayscontains release codes which describe the nature, time, and place thatthe content is to be uploaded to vehicle hard drives and is thereforeavailable in the network for deliveries. These codes and/or theircontent may be changed as many as several times per day, thus, ifartificial content or content codes are fraudulently generated theycould be identified, along with the vehicles transmitting them.

Upon final confirmation, distribution fees are calculated for eachcontent category, by specific VIN. These are shown in FIG. 19 as PublicService fees 915; Advertising fees 925; and Personal Use fees 935. Therelative values for various fees are discussed in a later section;however, Public Service fees 915 and Advertising fees 925 representincome for the platform owner/user, while Personal Use fees 935 usuallyrepresent a cost to the owner/user, because he is displaying his owncontent on his own VIN or is paying to have his own content displayed onother VINs in the platform network. In other words, the Personal Usefees 935 will, in most cases, be deducted from any revenue accumulatedby that VIN for the display of Advertising or Public Service content toothers.

Once fees are calculated, a designated billing unit can invoice andcollect Usage Fees from all platform participants. This would includecontract fees and bid rates charged to major brand advertisers orgovernment users. Such fees can be routed from a collecting unit, inthis case the Distribution unit 800, to the Compensation unit 900, fordisbursement to participants. Government Agencies are billed at thisstage for the delivery of any Public Service content by platform usersand this is shown at 990.

With fees properly calculated and invoiced, each content segment cansubmit final totals and compensation can be sent to the DrivingPopulation, Fleet/Government users, and all other participants who haveallowed their personal property to be used in this novel advertising andcommunications platform. This step is shown at 950 for Public Serviceutilization, at 960 for Advertising use, and at 970 for Personal use orfor any other User-generated content exposures. Again, payments for thedisplay of user-generated content typically involves debiting one's ownaccount for one's own use of his moving object against revenues that VINmay have earned. These direct payments to Registered Owners andOperators 1000, are indicated in FIG. 19 at path 178.

At 980 is a feature of the Compensation system which can allowco-payments, financial partnerships, or promotional sponsorships withentities such as automakers, banks, petroleum companies, insurancecompanies, and others. Any of these might offer promotions withincentives for the use of this unique advertising platform and thesecould eventually take many forms. For example, a petroleum company mightoffer free gas plus a premium for buying their brand instead of simplyreceiving ad dollars from the entity. This kind of co-compensation mightapply to automotive insurance, credit cards, or to even to theautomakers themselves. A manufacturer might, for example, integrate thepresent invention first into its offerings of what are sure to be morecostly alternate-energy vehicles, and then rely on theirrevenue-generating potential to offset their higher acquisition costsfor consumers. Thus, the present invention, appropriately integratedinto fuel-efficient vehicle planning and production would actuallystimulate the earlier adoption of such advanced or more costly products.

FIGS. 20-23 are illustrations showing a land-based vehicle with threeexamples of displays based on modes of operation and their relationshipsto the environment and to other moving or fixed objects. Although therewill be numerous methods for integrating displays FIG. 20 depicts atypical 4-door passenger car 1010 of the anticipated period having adigital rear end and a contemporary, low-profile one-box design. Itsrelatively elevated rear hatch puts the digital display well above itsrear bumper impact zone, in excellent line of sight for the occupants ofmost following (viewing) moving objects. In this example, the overallsurfaces and default color of the vehicle's contoured OLED video displayblends well with its inherent design lines.

FIGS. 21-23 depict three different kinds of displays. Although there arenumerous possible kinds of displays, steady-state vehicle 1020 in FIG.21 presents an image that might be seen when a vehicle is at speed,cruising in a steady state during daylight hours, in which there arefew, if any, speed or maneuvering changes, as might occur on an openroad or freeway. Such a display would be static and quite similar to thegraphics seen on vehicles in traffic today. These images might beallowed to introduce minor animations, such as the hair waving in image1022, or they might dissolve softly into other images, but only when thevehicles on which they are displayed are in stopped or near-stoppedconditions. Standards and practices will be established for all suchanimations and image transitions. Even minor animations or changes willlikely be precluded at speed since they could be distractive to theoperators of vehicles nearby. Thus, displayed graphics using the presentinvention, as shown in FIG. 21, are not dissimilar at all to what is onthe road today.

Transitional-state vehicle 1040 in FIG. 22 illustrates a conditioncharacteristic of any vehicle that is making changes in speed ordirection. All such changes—slowing, rapid braking, accelerating,turning, creeping slowly forward or backward—would cause nonessentialimagery to quickly dissolve to be replaced by all federally mandatedlighting and safety systems (assuming these become digital and not partof a traditional independent lighting system). Such digital lightingwould include a pair of tail lights at optimum spacing with turn signalsand brake lights 1042, a center-mount stop light 1046, plus backuplights and reflectors. If the license plate and registration systems arealso generated via digital video, as shown at 1048, these too wouldinstantly reappear during any vehicle speed or attitude changes unlessfederal or local requirements ultimately dictate their presence at alltimes. If commercial imagery of any kind is presented at such times,these would be minimal, non-animated and non-distractive, all verysimilar to the kinds of branding seen on automobiles today.

Stopped vehicle 1060 in FIG. 23 depicts a display on a vehicle that isfully stopped. When the speed sensor in a display (or viewed) vehicleindicates a non-moving condition, and its proximity sensor indicates arequesting vehicle or device within range (or even in the absence ofsuch electronics requests), then that display vehicle is able to queueand present full motion, conventional, or hyper-relevant video imagery1062. If the display vehicle should drift slowly forward, the fullmotion video imagery could, under most scenarios, dissolve and bereplaced by the lighting, licensing and safety systems shown in FIG. 21.Rulemaking and resulting Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS)would be adopted after thorough consumer and safety testing to determinethe speed and motion boundaries for full motion video animation,transitions and deliveries, and the appropriate start and cutoff timingsbased on the relative speeds and the movements of the other vehiclesinvolved.

It is worth noting that at night or during periods of darkness or underpotentially hazardous conditions, all lighting systems will bedisplayed. There are some genuine advantages to land vehicles havingdigital rear ends. One of these is graphics standardization for criticaloperations. The size and lateral separation of taillights combine toprovide valuable cues to any vehicles following as to the range ordistance to vehicles ahead. When taillights are of different sizes andhave different lateral spacing, the effectiveness of these cues isdiminished. The present invention allows for the widespreadstandardization of these important visual elements. It additionallyallows for intercommunications between all vehicles having digital videobody panels or glazing to display early warnings and even graduatedwarnings during slowing or stopping. In the event a vehicle leading along lane of vehicles at speed begins to slow, then all vehicles couldsimultaneously receive a slowing alert via radio and that signal wouldintroduce a uniform amber taillight alert that would shift graduallytowards red as all vehicles slow at roughly the same rate. This featurealone could prevent the very common increasingly exaggerated stops asbrake lights flash on without warning in a lane of traffic at speed.

FIGS. 24-27 are illustrations of four types of displayed content. 1100depicts an Emergency type display. Most of these will be in the PublicService category and would be stored and deployed by Federal, State orlocal governments. This would not preclude personal or consumeremergency buys however. Emergency graphics can be stored in all harddrives or can be uploaded to vehicles based on their locations andtravel environments. Emergency content is typically embedded withinstructions for distribution at precise times and under exactingconditions, usually triggered by local area wireless signals, GPScoordinates at precise time periods, or through vehicle to vehiclewireless transmissions. Note that emergency displays will cause allvehicle license and registration information to immediately reappear,assuming they are digitally represented. Emergency content transmissionswill have higher priorities than all other types of content and would betriggered by a proximity to, or entry upon, a hazardous area oftendefined by GPS coordinates.

At 1120, a typical Proximity advertisement is shown. A consumer in afollowing vehicle might request such proximity content be displayed onnearby objects, or these might appear passively based on a proximitymedia buy. In an example to be later described, Proximity buys could bebased on a time of day (e.g., meal time) and, most certainly, on alocation (e.g., the city blocks surrounding a restaurant. Graphics mightinclude animated signage, such as the right turn arrow depicted inProximity illustration 1120. In the case of a drive-thru restaurant,graphics on a viewed vehicle immediately ahead in the drive-thru linecould display a pictorial and even an animated menu in rich videoimagery, along with current prices.

The present invention uses existing onboard GPS Navigational systems todeliver ads at precise locations determined by the advertiser or by themedia buying agencies. By coupling specific content stored on board avehicle's internal hard drive to specific geographical locations (e.g.,a city block, an entire section of a city, or a length of ruralhighway), advertisers can target specific demographic groups by area andcan call attention to specific products or services while drivers orconsumers are close to them. This is called proximity advertising. Theability to advertise restaurants, promote special sales or points ofinterest, to capture spontaneous interest, or to inform those who may beunfamiliar with an area is powerful and much sought after in the worldof marketing. In practice, the desired GPS coordinates are coupled withthe ad content at the time of upload. When a vehicle's GPS system laterindicates travel within those specific boundaries, then those ads areeither queued or are given priority over other content.

At 1140 is an example of Sponsorship content. For example, a conventionpromoter or exhibitor could purchase time or content for the citystreets and freeways surrounding a convention center. As vehiclesequipped with the present invention approach sponsored venues, such astheme parks, sports stadiums, national parks, or airports, contentrepresenting those sponsors could appear on all of the objects moving inand around that immediate area.

Another common form of sponsorship is likely to be where marketers,entities, or individuals purchase time and space on the surfaces ofmoving objects as a free courtesy or a service enhancement for viewingparties. Imagine two vehicles equipped with the present inventionstopped one behind the other at a traffic signal in which the vehiclebehind is able to view the external display surfaces on the vehicleahead. Assume the viewing vehicle is at that moment tuned to a radiostation, using an onboard entertainment system, or listening to aportable handheld device such as a future iPod, satellite portable, MMx,or phone. When such equipment in or around a viewing vehicle is equippedwith a means to wirelessly broadcast an encoded signal describing thecontent it is currently using, then a vehicle ahead is able to enhancethat use by introducing visual content synchronized to a consumer'scurrent audio environment. In other words, if the occupants of a viewingvehicle are listening to a satellite radio station that is playingspecific music, that music code (or the content itself) could betransmitted forward to the viewed vehicle, and the display of thatvehicle could then present video material which is both related to andis synchronized with the audio content being received or consumed in theviewing vehicle. The logo or the tag lines of the sponsor offering suchfree entertainment or marketing enhancement would of course be displayedsomewhere on the video display within the line of sight of the viewingvehicle. Naturally, these commercial sponsorships could be turned off orlocked-out by any properly equipped viewing vehicle or any compatibleportable device within range.

At 1160 is an example of a Personal media content placement. Such mediacan be generated by consumers or professionals and can be uploaded byusers themselves. If personal ads are placed on other vehicles, theywill pay the going media rate for the anticipated location, time of dayfor the number of impressions. If such content is placed on an owner'sown vehicle, then that cost would be deducted from revenues earned fromthe display of content for others.

It is worth noting that a major application of the present inventionwill be that of displaying commercial advertising in large indoor andoutdoor parking lots and structures by using the rear surfaces of parkedcars. In this way, consumers can even earn revenue while they areshopping, by presenting commercial advertising to passing motorists whoare looking for parking places or to pedestrians on foot who are walkingpast rows of parked cars on their way to the retail spaces. Thisproximity application alone will be of significant value to the parkingspaces surrounding retail stores. Imagine the large number of vehiclesparked in spaces near a major mall anchor such as a Nordstrom's or amajor brand restaurant or theater chain that could display specials orshow film trailers to families passing on their way from the lot intothe mall. Proximity sensors on board each vehicle could activate suchads as pedestrians approached and passed behind them. These displays canalso easily be targeted by proximity, venue, or time of day, and whenconsumers further carry handheld MMx units which broadcast a consumer's“who I am” or “what I want” encoded preferences, then parked movingobjects are able to display hyper-relevant content to those pedestrians.

Example 1

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing geo-specific content distribution. Itdepicts several city blocks with in a representative downtown area. MainStreet is shown at 1280 and 1st street at 1200. The Convention Center islocated at 1220. A McDonald's Drive-thru is shown at 1240, and a HiltonHotel is shown at 1260. 3rd Street is a one-way street, as indicated bythe arrow at 1284, and temporary road work is shown at 1250. In terms ofcontent media buys, Apple Computer has purchased the several squareblock area surrounding the Convention Center, but only during visitationhours for the electronics show. This area is indicated at 1222.McDonald's restaurant, 1240, has a renewable lease for the city blockarea immediately surrounding its restaurant and the boundaries for thismedia area is indicated at 1242. However, McDonald's has also purchasedmedia rights to the subsurface parking garage for the convention centeron a 24/7 basis, such additional space being represented at 1244. HiltonHotels, meanwhile, has leased the areas surrounding its hotel but hasalso negotiated exclusive rights to traffic flowing along Main Street ahalf block from the Hotel. Each of these areas has boundaries defined byGPS coordinates and each has an individual priority for contentdeliveries based on the time of day. The fees for such areas and theirrelative priorities are established by the anticipated level ofexposure—typically based on the number of targeted impressions they candeliver at any given time—in the same way as outdoor billboardadvertising is valued. Specific content purchases are described in FIG.29. In FIG. 30, we will take a drive North on Main Street to experiencethe kinds of content that will be seen by four different types of usersduring their travels.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing content purchase and encoding by contenttype. Across the top are the Column headings of Sponsorship, Proximity,Personal, and Emergency, representing the four content categoriesdiscussed in FIGS. 24-27. On the left side, from top to bottom, are theheadings of Content, Time Encoding, Venue Encoding, Exposure priority,and Fee range. Together, these represent the kinds of media buysdescribed in FIG. 28.

Reading from top to bottom in the Sponsorship column, at 1305, we seeApple's purchase of the Consumer Electronics Show at the DowntownConvention Center. At 1325, we see that Apple has purchased the primetime hours when the Convention Center is open, from 7:30 AM to 6:00 PMduring the run of the electronics show. At 1345, we also note that Applehas purchased the several square block area surrounding the ConventionCenter which includes all of the approach routes to entry and parking.The Exposure Priority assigned for Apple's sponsorship (the preferencewith which Apple's promotion is given over other types of content) isshown at 1365 as Level 2, with Level 1 being highest. Finally, the FeeRange, at 1385, is “High”, based on the show and on the high valuebusiness traffic at this venue.

The Proximity content column at 1310 reflects McDonald's and HiltonHotel's Local Venue advertising buys. Both companies, at 1330, haveselected media purchases on a round-the-clock or 24/7 basis. 1350indicates McDonald's buy of the streets immediately surrounding itsrestaurant but, as shown in FIG. 28, also includes the entire ConventionCenter underground parking garage in an effort to attract hungryconvention goers. 1370 indicates a Level 3 priority (from a total offour), meaning that Apple's sponsorship at Level 2 would take priorityif there were a conflict in time and place. Finally, based on McDonald'sand Hilton's annual deals for Proximity advertising, they havenegotiated costs in a Medium fee range, shown at 1390.

Under Personal Content at 1315, we find a Registered Owner who wants toPromote his own business at minimal cost. An example of such contentwould be the Dog Walking business shown at 1160 in FIG. 27. In order tokeep costs down, yet hit his target market, this person has chosenNon-Prime Advertising hours at 1335, so that during these periods he cancontinue to generate revenue by displaying brand advertising for bigcompanies, but he has also selected an option which lets him manuallyoverride his own schedule to present his own or other personal adswhenever he chooses. Also, because his business operates in a localizedarea and involves such a personalized service, at 1355 this owner hadselected his immediate neighborhood based on GPS inputs. In other words,when he ventures further from home he can earn money through the displayof major brand advertising, but as soon as he re-enters his homeneighborhood, his Personal or Business ads will queue up and promote hislocal enterprise. At 1375, we see this has resulted in the lowestExposure Priority for his own content, allowing him to first optimizeincome producing content. His fees for Personal content will thereforebe among the lowest available, and will simply be deducted from hismonthly ad revenue, as indicated at 1395.

In the last column, Emergency, we see at 1320 that the City Departmentof Transportation has requested a Public Service placement, and hasdesignated it for automatic activation. This means the network willcause the requested content to automatically appear on the displays ofall moving or fixed objects equipped with the present inventionoperating within the specified venue in accordance with local laws andtime/place specifications. At 1340 and 1360, we see that both TimeEncoding and Venue Encoding will be governed by Local Road, Highway andSafety Standards During Project Durations. This simply means that“alert” or “emergency” content will be posted at the times and placeswhere they are required. Since many of these media postings areEmergency alerts that may bear on transportation or highway safety, theyare granted the highest priority, Level 1, shown at 1380. Fees for suchmedia are typically borne by public funds or taxpayer dollars. However,if Government agencies are using privately-owned assets to deliver itsmessages, the proceeds for any such Public Service media buys will beshared with the registered owners of those assets, as indicated at 1398.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing Content Viewing referencing informationfrom FIGS. 24-29. In FIGS. 24-27, we learned four basic types ofcontent. In FIG. 28, we saw how certain content could be displayedselectively based on its proximity to people, places and things, and inFIG. 29, we learned about content priorities, encoding, and fees. FIG.30 now brings all of these together to demonstrate what four differentvehicle drivers (each expressing individual interests and needs) wouldsee on the various fixed or moving objects around them that are able tocommunicate with the present invention as they move north on MainStreet, as shown in FIG. 28, at 12:00 noon.

Across the top of FIG. 30, four different driver types are represented:at 1402 is a Soccer Mom driving an SUV with a load of kids; at 1404 is aBusiness Traveler who is unfamiliar with the city and is driving arental car; at 1406 is a local Daily Commuter (who is quite familiarwith the city) driving in his personal car; and at 1408, we have adisinterested driver who is using a car equipped with an aftermarketsystem (as described in FIG. 17 at 680) to disable advertising on thevarious moving objects within his point of view.

The second row indicates the preference settings each of these drivershas assigned to his particular vehicle that are currently switched on.The soccer mom at 1412 has a Family Profile engaged in her SUV with herkid's preferences also active. At 1414, the business traveler has askedhis car rental company to transfer his preferences from his personal carto the rental car and has further requested the rental agency to add itslocal visitor support program, which will guide him through the citybased on his personal interests. The business commuter, at 1416, has hisnormal personal profile active. The disinterested driver has all of hisad viewing preferences shut off, as indicated at 1418. So, when drivingnorth on Main Street at noon, each of these drivers, along with anyoccupants on board, is likely to see the following kinds of content infront of or around them on surrounding displays equipped with thepresent invention:

From 1st Street to 2nd Street, mom in her SUV will see family orientedads derived from her own interests, mixed with the interests of herchildren (since their profiles have been so adjusted), as shown at 1422.At 1424, the business visitor in town will see ads and content based hisown WIA/WIW profile interests, except that any proximity-based interestswill reflect his current location. In other words, if one of hispreferences has been set for fine to Jamaican dining in his home town ofChicago, he will now be alerted to the presence of nearby Jamaicanrestaurants in this current location (e.g., Los Angeles), especiallyhere at lunch time. Because our visitor has asked the rental company toadd its Local Visitor Support package at 1424, he will be also shown avariety of local interests in his new travel area. If he is moreinterested in certain kinds of fishing or boating, than he is interestedin, for example, museums, a much larger emphasis will be placed on thesepoints of interest. At 1426, our local business commuter will bepresented with content corresponding to his personal profiles that areswitched on. Finally, at 1428, the disinterested driver will see nothingdisplayed on the objects in front of his vehicle as he moves between 1stand 2nd Streets.

Between 2nd and 3rd Street, our northbound drivers will enter the firstand largest zone for a proximity media buy, the one purchased by AppleComputer at the Convention Center. Here, our mom with her kids at 1432,our business traveler at 1434, and our local commuter at 1436, will allsee Apple's sponsorship imagery on the various objects around them;however, because our rental car visitor has requested local visitorsupport, he will also see, at 1434, a One Way Traffic Alert which willresult in an absolute display priority during the last 20% of travel asour visiting driver approaches the intersection. At 1438, ourdisinterested driver continues to see nothing displayed on the vehiclesor fixed signage around him.

Between 3rd Street and 4th Street, mom and kids at 1442, the rental cardriver at 1444, the local commuter at 1446, and even the disinteresteddriver at 1448, will all see a “NO RIGHT TURN” alert as they approachthe intersection calling attention to a temporary roadwork and closurecondition during the present hour. All vehicles will receive an alertsince these have the highest priority and involve issues of trafficsafety. As vehicles near the intersection, this alert overrides evenApple's high cost promotion and the disinterested driver's preferencesat 1448 to not view commercial content. Apple's exposure during thishour will drop to approximately 70% of the driving time between theseparallel streets. Such road hazard information would be regulated by thelocal area city and traffic signage infrastructure.

From 4th Street to 5th Street, mom at 1452, our rental car visitor at1454, and our daily commuter at 1456 will see, presented on the objectsbefore and/or around them, both the Apple promotion and Hilton Hotel'sproximity ads. Apple's logos will be seen approximately 70% of the timebetween 4th and 5th along Main Street, and Hilton's ad will be seenabout 30% of the time, due to Apple's premium fee paid for the temporaryConvention Center sponsorship. Between 4th and 5th, our disinteresteddriver at 1458 returns to being presented with no commercial content, inaccordance with his pre-established preferences.

Between 5th Street and 6th Street, mother and kids at 1462, the rentalcar user at 1464, and our daily commuter at 1466 will all be presentedwith essentially the same levels of paid content: Apple at 70% (due tothe premium fee), Hilton Hotel's ads at 20% of the linear block, andMcDonald's at 10% of the linear block, due to the surrounding surfacestreet proximity area purchases which they have leased from the network.Between these streets, however, our disinterested driver at 1468, in theabsence of any further road or traffic safety alerts, sees nothingdisplayed for his benefit.

In the final stretch between 6th Street and 7th Streets, ourdisinterested driver continues to have no commercial content displayed,as shown at 1488. However, our soccer mom with her kids at 1482, ourrental car driver at 1484, and our daily commuter at 1486 will allcontinue to view ads based on their previously scheduled proximity mediabuys and their content delivery instructions. The result is thefollowing approximate split in content display: Apple Computer at 70%(for its premium fee), with the balance split equally between McDonald'sand the Hilton (15% each), depending on linear area traveled over time.It is important to note that after 6:00 PM, when the Computer Showcloses at the Convention Center, the traffic between 2nd Street and 7thStreets will no longer be shared with Apple (since the company haspurchased time only during show hours). This time will now be dividedbetween McDonald's and Hilton Hotels based on areas 1242 (forMcDonald's) and 1262 (for Hilton), as shown in FIG. 28. In the remainingareas along Main Street which are not defined by the proximity contentpurchases shown in FIG. 28, presentations will be based upon the activepersonal “Who I Am”/“What I Want” personal profiles or on preferencesstored on board each vehicle, which have also been activated by theirowners (or system administrators).

FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing a possible content delivery protocolbetween moving objects. Such a sequence typically begins at 740/750 witha local wireless signal from another moving object or from a portable,mobile hand-held device containing data and a means to transmit acombination of VIN numbers, profiles, user codes, or content requests.Such signals are received at receiver 744 and are decoded at 746. Thisinformation is then processed aboard a receiving (or viewed) vehicle, ora moving or a fixed object, as indicated at 1505. Once received, aninitial question is asked at 1510: Are ads rejected? If the answer isYES, no ads are queued, as indicated at 1515, and subsequently, at 1520,the declined ad viewing instruction is logged on the hard drives of boththe requesting (transmitting) and the displaying (receiving) movingobjects. Eventually, this declined data delivery is uploaded to thenetwork along with information on VIN, time, place, and demographics viatransceiver 714.

If, at 1510, the answer is NO, then the preferences associated with thatVIN are decoded at 1525. At 1530, a second question is asked: Is therequested content available? If the answer is affirmative, anotherquestion/decision follows at 1540: Is there time for the requestedcontent? Input for this decision comes from the Intersection Clock 1800,which is explained in more detail in FIG. 35. The Intersection Clock1800 is an independent database that is linked to a moving object's GPS(geo-location or navigational) system 755, which, over time, records andlearns event delay performance at precise locations, primarily attraffic lights, bridge or railroad crossings, freeway on ramps, andthroughout urban or rural environments that experience heavy stop-and-gotraffic. This database is linked to a short range wireless transceiversystem capable of synchronizing its current database with signals fromother moving objects (those equipped with the present invention) whichmay have arrived at the intersection earlier, and then lock onto theongoing traffic signal sequencing at that location. Based on thisinformation, the Intersection Clock 1800 can determine how much timeremains for the display of content before stopped traffic starts to moveagain.

If, at 1540, adequate time remains to display the requested content,then at 1550, the system determines if there are any priority overridesto deal with. Such overrides can come from multiple sources. Blockdiagram elements 846, 848, and 824 represent Proximity Priorities,Personal Priorities and Public Service Priorities, respectively. Thesepriority assignments are typically embedded with their content asrelease instructions and are triggered by time, place, or hierarchy asdiscussed in FIGS. 29 and 30. Another kind of priority override is shownat 1595. Law Enforcement and Security Priorities can be triggered fromoutside the system as opposed to using a preprogrammed internalprotocol. The law enforcement chip at 748 is an example of a triggerwhich provides for the override of moving object displays by members oflaw enforcement in the interests of public safety. Imagine, for example,that a missing child is reported in a specific area of the city. Itwould be possible in only minutes to distribute a photograph of thatmissing child and to reproduce that image on the display panels of allequipped vehicles within several square miles of where that child waslast seen. In another example, it would be possible to place “WARNINGSTOP WAIT” graphics on vehicle displays in the event that EmergencyVehicles are approaching the intersection.

If priority overrides are embedded in the content, these are revealed at1550, and content is displayed accordingly. If there are no priorities,then at 1555 content is released from the on board storage hard drive.Priority monitoring is an ongoing and constant real time process asindicated at 1560. If delivery conditions change, content queuing ordisplay can be instantly suspended or even substituted with othercontent. One of the most critical steps in monitoring content deliveriesis to confirm vehicle relative speeds and proximities in real time. Thisstep is shown at 1565. When all pre-established delivery criteria hasbeen met between a requesting and a presenting vehicle, prioritizedcontent is sent to the presenting vehicle's display drivers, as shown at1570, then on to its video display 760. If, during display, deliverychanges are detected at 1565, it may be necessary to suspend or modifythe delivery of content. For example, a presenting vehicle creepsslightly ahead in traffic, altering the viewing angle and range, and,more importantly, introducing a need for the operator of a viewingvehicle to focus on maneuvering his vehicle forward in a stop and gotraffic lane. It becomes immediately critical to suspend any contentdelivery that could compromise the maneuvering process and to reveal allvehicle visual lighting and safety systems. An essential purpose of thepresent invention is to maintain, at a minimum, the safe operatingconditions which exist today between moving objects and their operators.For this reason, it is anticipated that video impressions would occuronly when vehicles are static, parked, or moving only within minimalacceptable limits. Thus, at 1580, any changes beyond established normswill modify content delivery.

Once content has been sent to the display drivers, the extent of thedelivery will be confirmed at 1575. If the queued content has beentotally delivered, then the time, place, and percentage of that deliverywill be encoded and logged onto the hard drives of both the requestingand the presenting vehicles, as indicated at 1590. This is an importantconfirmation step as it reveals to marketers and to the distributionnetwork that the intended content was indeed delivered as requested andthat platform owners and operators can now be properly compensated bythe Compensation unit 900. Although it is not reflected in FIG. 31,content delivery, as previously discussed, includes the transmission ofeither audio codes or content, so that the audio portions of videocontent can be reproduced over the sound systems of viewing orrequesting vehicles and devices. Deliveries can therefore be confirmedon several levels, the four most common being: (1) Content was NOTviewed (content requests were shut off or content was rejected); (2)Content was viewed only (requested content was displayed but sound wasshut off); (3) Content was both viewed and heard (both systemsfunctioned fully during delivery); and (4) Content caused viewer tospecifically respond after such viewing (meaning that a receiving partymight have driven to a specific location, requested more information ona product, or made a purchase within a specified period).

If the delivery of content is modified for any reason at 1580, then itis determined at 1582 whether minimal delivery requirements have beenmet to constitute an actual delivery. This is generally interpreted bythe amount of content exposed to the viewer. If minimal exposure was metat 1582, then this will be logged as a percentage delivery at 1590. Ifminimal exposure was not met, then shorter content of a similar type canbe queued (as indicated at 1545), or the delivery can simply bepreempted as shown at 1586 and re-queued in its entirely at 1588.

If, at 1530, it is determined that requested content is unavailable(meaning, possibly that a hard drive may not have been recently updatedfrom the network), then, at 1535, alternate, similar, or generic contentis queued. If it is determined at 1540 that there is insufficient timeto display 100% of the requested content (e.g., a 30 second spot), then,at 1545, a shorter commercial spot of the same or similar content can besubstituted. Once such revised content is queued at 1535 or 1545, it isreleased from the hard drive, as indicated at 1555.

FIG. 32 is a diagram illustrating geo-specific content distribution in arural area. The map shows an Interstate Highway 1610 passing north/souththrough a rural countryside. A rural road is shown at 1620, a river at1630 and a bridge-out condition at 1640. Several hundred feet from thehighway is a Gas Station/Market at 1650. A rectangular boundary isindicated around the Gas Station/Market area. This area defines aproximity advertising area 1660 within which specific commercial orpublic service messages can be delivered. Another boundary is indicatedat 1670. This rectangular area defines the bridge-out warning alert areaand is referred to as a Public Service Alert Area. Finally, fourelectronic billboard installations are represented at 1680, 1682, 1684and 1686.

When stop and go congestion exists on the interstate, then movingobjects equipped with the present invention can use other objectsimmediately in their paths to display commercial or public servicecontent. It is generally anticipated that non-animated graphics (e.g.,signage announcing an upcoming gas station or market stop ahead) couldbe placed on nearby moving objects at speed since they would be no moredistractive than other types of graphics which exist today on movingobjects and would, in fact, be easier to read since they are moving withthe viewer at traffic speeds, as opposed to passing quickly by atroadside. However, in the absence of traffic equipped with the presentinvention, electronic content would have to be placed on other kinds ofdisplay surfaces, such as the billboards indicated at 1680. Thedifference between standard electronic billboards and those equippedwith the present invention is that those equipped according to thepresent invention able to receive and interpret aggregated requests forcommercial, personal, or public service content and then display suchcontent to the occupants of passing vehicles.

For example, southbound traffic on Interstate 1610 will transmit advancewireless signals (each representing VINs, profiles, and user codes withcontent requests) to the billboards depicted at 1680. When a vehicleapproaches such a billboard, the billboard has already polled itsinternal storage (see FIG. 31), and will queue and display contentrequested by that VIN as it approaches. In this way, even single or lonevehicles using the present invention can function independently withinthe environment by causing highly appropriate or hyper-relevant contentto appear on many types of surrounding surfaces. Imagine fuel is nearingempty on that southbound vehicle. Such a “low fuel” condition can beinterpreted through the vehicle interface 730 and, once coordinated withGPS data regarding the location of the service station, can encode andbroadcast a radio signal 740 via transmitter 742 to enable nearbybillboards to display information on the proximity of available fuelingstops. While it is true that such information could be presented ondisplays inside a vehicle, other types of content are better suited forshowing externally on electronic billboards. For example, billboard 1680could reveal the presence of Gas Station/Market 1650, which mightotherwise be obscured from direct view of Interstate traffic. Billboard1682 could further indicate directions to the Gas Station/Market andmight feature other products and services based on the preferences andinterests of the occupants of any approaching VINs. Westbound traffic onRural Road 1620 would be exposed to electronic billboard 1694 beforeleaving the populated area defined by Proximity Advertising Area 1660.Normally, billboard 1694 would carry content relating to features alongthe road or would respond to content requests. However, in this exampleshowing a proximity Public Service Alert area, 1670, such requestedcontent for billboard 1684 would be overridden by the “bridge-out” alertuntil the condition is eliminated. Electronic billboards would havecontent uploaded to them using the Internet and a delivery means such ascable, wireless, or satellite. Again, embedded with the content fordelivery can be specific instructions for the dissemination of thatcontent. In the case of the “bridge-out” alert, these instructions wouldlikely be in the form of GPS coordinates defining the perimeter of thealert area. Such a boundary is indicated at 1670. Once these boundarycoordinates are identified and approved by a governing agency, they canbe sent out via Internet/cable/wireless/satellite to all such electronicdisplay devices within an affected area. This means that all movingobjects, whether or not equipped with the present invention canencounter such visual displays. Secondly, these coordinates can be sentto all moving objects equipped with the present invention as indicatedat 868, 870, 872 or 974 in FIG. 18B, causing such an alert to overrideother types of content on any equipped vehicles that enter the area 1670boundary. The advantage, of course, is that local governments are ableto instantly deploy critical public service alerts like bridge out orflooding/turn back warnings without having to visit the site tophysically set up such temporary signage as is commonly done today. Bothfixed electronic signage and moving objects can be quickly changed overfrom commercial revenue to emergency public service purposes by carryingtheir audio/visual messages directly to the vehicles, venues andconsumers concerned on an exacting and timely basis.

Example 2

FIG. 33 illustrates the interactions between moving and stationaryobjects at a typical city intersection and will help clarify twoelements relating to the queuing and display of content on movingobjects: (1) allocating timing for display through the use of theIntersection Clock 1800, and (2) specific methods of vehicle-to-vehicleviewing.

A traffic intersection is shown at 1700, bounded by pedestriancrosswalks, a configuration increasingly common in city and ruralenvironments. 1705 indicates an eight lane north/south highway. 1710represents an east/west highway with active cross traffic. Overhangingtraffic light structures 1715 are shown in two places for thenorth/south corridor. Each of these carries a left turn signal 1720aligned opposite and above the left turn lane, plus a green/amber/redsignal light above through traffic lanes, plus an identical light oneach corner, shown as 1725.

Note first the northbound vehicles marked A through L. In this firstexample, vehicle A has arrived and stopped at the intersection first.Vehicle A is equipped with a production version of the presentinvention; however, it has not previously been through this particularintersection. As a result, as Vehicle A approached this intersection,several things occurred: (a) the driver of Vehicle A, seeing light 1725change from green to amber, braked and eased to a stop at crosswalk1730; (b) a forward-looking optical sensor on Vehicle A, monitoring itsapproach to the signal light, sensed the signal light's color shift fromgreen to amber; (c) sensing the color change (in the same way as itsdriver), Vehicle A engaged its onboard Intersection Clock 1800 to begina recording function to document the signal's red (stop) duration beforeits return to green (go). By recording this elapsed time and bycross-referencing the vehicle's GPS location and its last heading(northbound), vehicle A is able to initially compile, in terms of grosstiming, a beginning database for the signal sequences at this particularlocation.

Every signal intersection has basic and relatively consistent eventtiming protocols. Some locations, however, have unique event schedules,but even these can be learned by the Intersection Clock 1800 as definedby the present invention. For example, intersection traffic lights willnormally halt traffic flowing in opposing directions to permit the flowof cross traffic. This process normally begins by allowing cross trafficto complete opposing left turns first. After left turns are timed out(about 12-16 seconds), those lanes are then stopped and through trafficis allowed to proceed. After a predetermined period (anywhere from 60 to90 seconds), this process is halted and the sequence will repeat itselfwith traffic flowing in the perpendicular direction. Clearly, there aremany variations, including one-way streets, multiple streets converging,railroad crossings, etc.; however, when coupled with GPS identificationand an ability to spot the start of an event (such as a color transitionfrom green to amber), any vehicle equipped with the Intersection Clockof the present invention can automatically construct a database by timeof day for any intersection it uses. Table 1 illustrates a typicaltraffic signal event timing cycle.

In addition to constructing an event timing database from scratch,moving objects equipped with the present invention are also able toreceive intersection event timing data from other moving objects in andaround that intersection. In other words, if another vehicle that haspreviously passed through this intersection arrives moments later, thissecond arriving vehicle will have the traffic event sequence for thisintersection stored in the database of its own onboard IntersectionClock. For example, assume that vehicle H (or even vehicle M, which iscurrently crossing the intersection) contains such information. Each ofthese vehicles will automatically broadcast the event sequence for thisintersection when it enters or crosses it, by wirelessly transmitting itfrom its Intersection Clock 1800 through transmitter 714 and antenna715. In this way, all vehicles equipped with the present invention canimmediately update their onboard database for this intersection. At thesame time, Vehicle A can contribute an accurate synchronizing signal forthese later arrivals because it began recording event timing for thenorthbound lanes beginning with the signal's light change from amber tored. Through this instant, ad hoc exchange of information at anypopulated intersection, all properly equipped vehicles can distributecurrent event timings and synchronize their internal clocks withoutrelying on external infrastructures.

One last step for each Intersection Clock is to calculate for itsrespective vehicle the amount of time remaining for contentpresentations before the light turns green in its lane and the trafficbegins to flow. From Table 1, one can see that if a vehicle (e.g.,southbound Vehicle P) should arrive at the intersection later andsynchronize with other vehicles at event Stage 4, then it will haveapproximately 92 seconds within which to queue and present video contentbefore these vehicles begin to move again. Ninety-two seconds isadequate for two full 30-second commercial spots, two 15-second spotsand a two-second dissolve to a corporate logo sponsorship beforemandatory vehicle safety systems must again kick in.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communications will be governed through testing, rulemaking, and the administration of content delivery procedures thatdefine where, when, and under what conditions various types of contentcan be displayed without compromising highway and traffic operationalsafety. It is essential that content not detract from a vehicleoperator's need to focus on the movements of all objects around themrather than on any graphic content those objects might be displaying,beyond federally mandated lighting and safety systems. The presentinvention can assure that content will only be viewed or presented whenvehicles are fully stopped. It can also assure that content cannot beviewed by vehicles that are passing in adjacent lanes, because thiscould produce a significant distraction. The kinds of displaysanticipated by the present invention can be combined with thin filmoverlays that can optically or electronically increase or reduce theangles at which imagery can be seen. Optical filters, for example, canbe embedded into the outer protective layers for these displays. Onebasic filter of this kind is 3M Corporation's micro-louvre technologywhich optically restricts the viewing angles in flat panel displays.Still another technique, created by Sharp Corporation and SharpLaboratories of Europe, Ltd., permits an LCD to simultaneously displaydifferent information and image content in right and left views on asingle display by directionally controlling the viewing angle of theLCD. This makes it possible to provide information and content tailoredto specific users depending on the precise angle at which they view thedisplay. Such an application could, for example, direct requestedhyper-relevant video content directly rearward to a following vehicle,while the view from vehicles passing at more oblique angles could causethe same imagery to dissolve into the default body color for a givenvehicle, or into content appropriate for generic or non-requestedviewing.

A primary reason for selective or controlled viewing is that contentrequests are generally private and based on non-identifiable informationrequests. If an individual in a following (viewing) vehicle has allowedpreferences which request content that is quite personal in nature, itwould not be desirable for that content to be viewable by the occupantsof vehicles in adjacent traffic lanes. Note, for example, Vehicle A,which is presenting requested hyper-relevant content to vehicle B behindit. Note the angular spread indicated at 1735. This lateral spreadcontrolled by the previously mentioned technologies prevents theoccupants of surrounding vehicles D, G, or H from seeing what is beingdisplayed on the rear-facing surfaces of Vehicle A. Vehicle D's exposureis blocked by vehicle B, as shown by dimension 1740. If Vehicle B werenot in close proximity to Vehicle A, this condition would be detected byVehicle A's proximity sensor 770, and the system would prevent thequeuing of highly personal hyper-relevant content. Vertical viewingangles can be controlled in the same way as horizontal viewing angles toprevent, for example, the viewing of personal content from adjacenttrucks or busses having seating positions that are inherently higherrelative to the ground. Additionally, all such imagery would notincorporate animations or otherwise distractive content until thesurrounding viewing vehicles have come to a complete stop.

Note that at 1745, Vehicle D has requested content from Vehicle C.Vehicle C can select and queue that content; however, it cannot presentit until Vehicle D has come to a full stop at a predetermined rangebehind Vehicle C, such spacing predicated on the respective VINs of thetwo vehicles. Such optimum spacing is reflected by Vehicles G and H, atdimension 1750. Here, vehicle G is a high SUV and vehicle H is a lowtwo-door sports coupe. The VIN numbers exchanged between these vehiclesduring the requesting protocol has identified the respective heights ofeach vehicle along with the eye envelope for an average percentiledriver in the following (viewing) vehicle. This information yields anoptimum viewing range between these two objects. Furthermore, as vehicleH closes the gap with vehicle G, a small green dot will appear on therear-facing display of Vehicle G. As the driver of Vehicle H continuesforward, this spot will grow increasingly amber and finally red whichindicates the optimum stopping point for best viewing through vehicleH's windshield. At this point, the dot will disappear and contentviewing will commence. This fore/aft vehicle spacing feature of thepresent invention will additionally conserve thousands of square feet ofspace in traffic lanes simply by allowing vehicles to maintain moreefficient vehicle-to-vehicle tandem spacing.

By contrast, vehicles K and L have reached optimum spacing, as shown atdistance 1755; however, vehicle K cannot present content because bothvehicles are drifting slowly forward in the same lane. Once bothvehicles reach a full stop, they can commence content display. On theother hand, Vehicle K has made an automatic content request of Vehicle Jat a relatively distant range shown at 1760. Because vehicle J is at afull stop, it might be allowed to queue and present certain kinds ofstatic content (such as a non-animated corporate logo) until Vehicle Kis fully stopped at optimum spacing behind vehicle J.

FIG. 34 shows a section of freeway with lanes in one direction, having acenter divider 1765 and a carpool lane 1770. Moving at consistentfreeway speeds, Vehicle B may make content requests forward to VehicleA, as shown at 1775, however, such requests will be fulfilled only on alimited basis due to relative vehicle speed and range protocols. Duringday and night hours at speed, commercial imagery is likely to be limitedto small centrally-located display areas on digital rear-ends andanimation would not be permitted unless vehicles are fully stopped. Thisis because animated or moving images can distract nearby drivers. At thesame time, protocols would not want to dissolve or delete commercialimagery before engaging a vehicle's lighting and safety systems as thiscould introduce dramatic changes in object appearance while they areunderway. Additionally, during night driving hours, all lighting andsafety systems would remain active on all moving objects, regardless ofspeed, proximity, or location since uniform taillights, running lights,and turn signals are vital elements in allowing drivers to judge thedistances and conditions of vehicles ahead.

An exception might occur between stopped or extremely slow stop and gotraffic as depicted in the far right lane 1780. Such a condition couldbe caused by a backed-up off ramp. If, over time, such blockages onheavily traveled freeways become repetitive, these conditions wouldgradually be recorded on the Intersection Clocks of moving objectsequipped with the present invention. Estimates of such delays can thenbe monitored for consistency and certain kinds of content or publicservice alerts can be displayed. In such cases, vehicles can use theiron board transmitters to measure the relative movements in long rows ofvehicles and opportunities can be identified for the queuing and displayof short duration content while these vehicles are near-stationary. Inlane 1780 from top to bottom, Vehicle I is presenting nonspecific(generic) commercial content to Vehicle J (which does not possess thepresent invention), Vehicle L is presenting hyper-relevant content tovehicle M (which has requested it), and vehicle M is presenting genericcontent to vehicle N. Of significant value in such situations is theability of any vehicle fitted with the present invention to synchronizepublic service or traffic safety displays with other properly equippedvehicles. As previously mentioned, freeway speed changes, whencommunicated uniformly by radio between multiple vehiclessimultaneously, followed by a uniform response (such as causing all ofthe vehicle's rear lighting systems to glow amber (for caution) and thentransition at the same rate to red-amber and then red at uniformbrightness levels (as opposed to individual brake lights flashinginstantly on without warning), will result in considerably safer drivercontrol and in the virtual elimination of progressively exaggeratedslowing which leads to rear-end collisions. The U.S. Governmentcurrently has programs in place to develop such highway technologieswhich could easily adopt or interface with the present invention. Onesuch program is the Forward-Looking Rear-End Collision Warning System(FCW) designed to explore and ultimately deploy driver warningmethodologies. The digital vehicle rear-end and lighting safety systemsanticipated by the present invention conforms to all of the targetedWarning Display Characteristics and to the Following-Too-Closely WarningMethodologies dictated by the study since it approaches the FCW warningdisplay in a distinctly novel way. Of equal importance is the presentinvention's consumer adoption plan—one driven by commerce rather thanlegislation—because it enables participating consumers to generaterevenue and, as a result, represents a unique opportunity for newtechnology adoption. Suppose we wanted to stimulate the broad adoptionof energy-efficient vehicles. By incorporating the present inventioninto such vehicles first, we allow consumers to generate significantpersonal revenues, which effectively offset their inherently highermanufacturing, acquisition, and infrastructure costs.

FIG. 35 is a block diagram of the Intersection Clock 1800, a device thatenables the recording of traffic signal timing sequences and measuresthe time available for the display of content at locations where trafficflow is controlled by infrastructure. The Intersection Clock is linkedto a vehicle's onboard GPS navigation system 755 (normally throughvehicle interface 730), which introduces vehicle heading and locationdata to the Intersection Clock as indicated at 1805 on an ongoing basisin real-time. The Intersection Clock is also linked to an optical sensor1820, which, in a traditional land-based traffic environment, isforward-looking and, in a preferred embodiment, reads the colors oftraffic signal lights as the vehicle approaches them. This sensor seeksand monitors the presence of a green light, which is characteristic oftraffic “go” conditions, then activates to an “alert” status when thegreen light transitions to amber, responding in the same way as a driverwould to the light color change. Color transitions are received anddocumented at 1815, where they are assigned a GPS location usingtraditionally available electronic means. The moment this amber lighttransitions to red, a time-stamped signal is sent to clock component1810 and a Location File is opened for that venue based on the vehicle'slast direction of travel and its current position. At that moment, theIntersection Clock 1800 checks for previously stored information forthis location. If, at 1825, it is determined that no sequence code orsynchronizing signal is stored, event time recording is triggered at1830, commencing with the light's transition from amber to red. At thesame time, a default time-remaining signal 1835—an average based onstored data for traffic signals in the area—is forwarded to IntersectionClock 1880, which allows certain content to be queued. Meanwhile, at1840, the red/stop cycle timing (which began with the amber to redtransition) is logged for the vehicle's direction and location forstorage in its clock's database 1850. In the absence of further incomingdata, this information will be logged in this vehicle's database forfuture use at these GPS coordinates. If there is indeed data in database1850 which relates to this location, then that signal sequence code datais retrieved at 1845, then passed from the data base as shown in path at1855 to 1860, where the sequence code is then synchronized to thered/stop cycle just logged for this heading and location.

However, it is also possible for synchronized signal sequence codes ornon-synchronized signal codes to be received, as indicated at 1865, fromother vehicles equipped with the present invention. This is accomplishedvia antennas 712, 715 and transceiver 714. These codes, as well assynchronizing signals, can be broadcast between vehicles that are eitherpassing one another or arriving on the scene at different times. If avehicle arrives that possesses signal sequence codes regarding thelocation, it is able to broadcast, on an ad hoc basis (from one vehicleto another), the traffic light timing sequence it has logged for thislocation. In this way, a vehicle that does not originally have thetiming sequence can receive it as shown at 1865, and can thensynchronize this sequence at 1860 using the red/stop cycle eventrecording it is either processing or has logged at 1840. When a new orupdated code sequence has been received from another vehicle, or hasbeen recorded for a specific location using new data, it is sent todatabase 1850, as indicated at 1870, for storage and use when thatvehicle returns to the same location. Conversely, when a vehicle thatpossesses the sequence code in its database for a particular locationarrives after a vehicle which has begun recording the amber-red eventstart cycle, that vehicle can then synchronize its sequence code withthe earlier arriving vehicle.

The final step for the Intersection Clock 1800 is to calculate the timeremaining for the display of content. This is accomplished byidentifying the current point in the timing cycle (based on the amber tored transition for a given direction by any vehicle, and as shown inmore detail in the description for FIG. 33), and then determining, at1880, the time remaining before the red (stop) light transitions togreen (go) for a given direction of travel. Once that is determined,content packages fitting the remaining time can be queued and releasedfrom the content hard drive 716, as shown at 1555. Bear in mind that theIntersection Clock 1800 merely defines the time within which movingobjects equipped with the present invention can display imagery beforeit must be terminated in favor of other operating systems. This processdoes not in any way control the physical operation of motor vehicles ormoving objects.

Example 3

Finally, a much more basic example of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention is the incorporation of such a system into the familycar. Bringing home an automobile with the present invention built incould be reminiscent of bringing home the first family television, videorecorder, or computer of years past.

Dad decided it would be a family surprise—a new Lexus ‘Crossover’car—rugged enough for family vacations, yet refined enough for theoffice and for mom to do lunch with her friends. It came in two models,one basic, the other with Lexus' new on-board ad display system,something the company called an “ad/hybrid.” Other than this, the modelswere identical. With financing, the slight increase in cost for thead/hybrid was barely noticeable in the monthly payment, but the windowsticker made it clear the car would produce handsome annual revenue forits owner, significantly offsetting the costs of its built-in ad displaytechnology. On the sticker, this revenue had been translated in terms ofthe car's annual savings in operating costs in the same way as itsaverage fuel performance had been estimated. Dad signed the papers, thedealer pre-registered the ad/hybrid's VIN and dad headed for home.

The kids were all over the car as soon as it drove up the drive. Rightaway, his 8-year old daughter wanted to place picture ads for herafter-school dog walking business. His 14-year old son was ready to hookup his DVD player so that he and his friends could watch wide screentailgate movies on the lawn. In fact, both kids seemed to know moreabout the technology than dad, and mom just looked on disapprovinglyfrom the door, irked at the thought of such blatant commercialism.Indeed, a car that shows commercials!

That night, dad logged onto the well-crafted Lexus site which had thelook and feel of a welcoming online community. It allowed him to createuser names for each family member and to finish the registration processhe'd begun at the dealership. Quietly and thoughtfully, dad completedhis user profile by following the easy prompts, describing himself, hisinterests, and those of his family. He noticed that he was never askedany truly personal information in the profile—just age, gender,occupation, educational level, and the like—all in easy to answermultiple choice questions, which also encouraged him to describe thethings he liked and was genuinely interested in. He guessed correctlythat everything was somehow linked to the new car's VIN.

When he was done he clicked “send.” Later that evening, when he steppedto the garage for another look at his new car, he was surprised to seethat its new license plate was softly glowing on the car's otherwisedark rear digital display. What an improvement, he thought, to no longerhave to bolt on metal plates and add new stickers each year.

The next morning, when pausing behind another car at a boulevard stop onhis way to work, the display on the car ahead burst into light andcolor, greeted dad with his own user name and welcomed him to the Lexusad network. Minutes later, behind another vehicle on the freeway onramp, he viewed a 30-second spot for his favorite ball club, a promotionfor ABC's Monday Night Football, and was offered 50% off for hisbirthday at the Sports Chalet a few blocks from his home. He hadcompletely forgotten that next week was his birthday!

Dad parked the new Lexus in his regular spot in the company's parkinggarage, unaware that antennas overhead were already uploading themorning's recorded ad deliveries and downloading to his hard drive thelatest content released to the Internet just seconds before in New York.

On the drive home, in stop and go freeway traffic, dad noticed that allof the cars in front of him, regardless of make or model, displayed abrightly colored Nike logo that pulsed and glowed as the cars slowed andsped up. Of course! They were passing the convention center and thisweek was the big Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association (SGMA) Show,where Nike was a major sponsor. Smart of them to buy the local ad space,he thought to himself. A few blocks past the convention center, the Nikesponsorships dissolved to be to be replaced by logos for AmericanExpress, Best Buy, Home Depot, and NASCAR. Dad noted that when cars weremoving at reasonable speeds, they were unable to display anything otherthan simple, non animated logos, easily read from distances; in fact,not much different from trucks and commercial vehicles seen on thestreets in past decades. Dad squeezed the ad pad on his steering wheeland the small display in his instrument cluster revealed the image thatwas currently playing on the back of his Lexus to whomever was behindhim: Victoria's Secret! He recalled that his profile allowed him tocheck off any sponsor whose product or service he preferred not tocarry. As the freeway traffic slowed, he noticed that logos would softlyfade to be replaced by standard brake or turn signal lighting, which noweven changed color gradually with reduced speeds, shifting from deepamber for gradual speed reductions to brilliant red for full braking.Later, as traffic crept slowly forward, each car's license plate wasprominently displayed absent any advertising. Every time his new Lexusdrew close to a car ahead which was at a full stop, a green spotappeared on that car's rear-facing display and gradually changed toamber, then red, at which point he stopped and the spot vanished. This,he knew, placed him at a minimum spacing between vehicles in traffic,and at the optimum range and sightline for best viewing based on themodel and VIN codes transmitted between the two vehicles. According tothe reports he had read, this proximity compacting byproduct alone hadconserved hundreds of square miles of wasted traffic lane space on citystreets, freeing up turn lanes at many crowded intersections. Once hewas fully stopped in traffic, the display on the car in front of himfaded to black and music filled his own car's interior, fed through hisLexus' surround sound system. The display on the car ahead then burstforth into a wide-screen movie trailer complete with stereo sound, whichthen faded out, to be replaced with brake lights, as traffic creptforward again. Stopped once again, the brake lights faded and the moviepreview picked up where it had left off and finished by offering himfamily discount tickets at the theater in his own neighborhood. And itwas his kind of movie. Dad knew the preference codes came from his ownon-board profile in the Lexus, but he was unsure as to whether the videoand audio content came from his car or the car ahead. He knew it couldcome from either.

When dad arrived home he found that his daughter had finished a littlegraphic ad for her dog walking service. How could he refuse to let herupload it to the family car? After all, it would only show in theimmediate neighborhood, and then, only at special times of the day. Infact, the procedure was so simple, that once she completed her profile,she was able to upload her little commercial for network approval all byherself; however, the network declined to let her present her phonenumber since she was under the age of 18. Her brother, meanwhile, hadcompleted his profile using his own computer and had downloaded it—againfor network approval—under his own name and password using the family'swireless home network.

As dad drove to work the next morning, he was barraged by ads forsnowboards, video games, a radical new soda, and previews for kid's TVshows until he realized the car was tuned to his son's new preferencesand not to his own preference settings. That evening, he made sure thateach family member had their own password and he proclaimed himself thead/hybrid's official system administrator.

On Saturday, mom borrowed the Lexus to accompany two of her friends fora luncheon and a book review at the Mondrian Hotel downtown. Dad showedher how to switch off the system so it wouldn't become an‘embarrassment’ to her while she chatted with her friends. Sure enough,not once was the girls' conversation interrupted by unseemly commercialson the backs of the cars ahead, although at one corner, a large SUV litup in front of her warning of roadwork and a closed road on her usualroute to the Mondrian. Thanks to the ad/hybrid's to warn her of atraffic blockage in real time, she and her friends arrived on time,while other attendees got caught up in the delay and missed thebeginning of the show. Driving home alone, and now curious, mom switchedon the ad/hybrid's system. Two blocks from the Hotel, a black Escaladelit up in front of her, displaying an elegant photo of the Mondrian andthanked her for her recent visit, followed with an offer of a getawaypackage for two at any of the Mondrian hotels nationwide. Mom pushed the“I” button dad had told her about, and requested that information beemailed to her computer. Before mom got home, she had watched a knockoutcommercial for a new Clairol product, a teaser for a new high-end shoestore, and was persuaded to drive three blocks off her route to aBorders Bookstore Grand Opening. That evening, she relented andcompleted her own online ad/hybrid profile so she too could receivehyper-relevant ads.

A month passed and mom's Visa Statement arrived. To her surprise, itshowed a $48.70 credit under a Citibank promotion, just because she hadwatched a few ads! That evening, she mentioned her little windfall toher husband. Dad went to his home office and returned proudly with acheck from Lexus in the amount of $849.60, just because he had displayeda few ads.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the exemplary embodimentsdescribed herein can be implemented in various ways. For example, visualdisplays can be of any conventional type, such as thin film transistor(TFT) displays, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, or anyother type of visual display suitable for the particular context ofinstallation and use. Network systems and devices can be server-based orpeer-to-peer, centralized or decentralized, secured or unsecured, or thelike. Communications and network interfaces between systems and devicescan include wired (e.g., Ethernet, wire cable, optical fiber, and thelike) and wireless (e.g., radio frequency, infrared, light modulation,and the like) interfaces. Systems, devices and components can beimplemented using hardware, firmware, software, or any combinationthereof, including programmed or programmable data processors, fixed orremovable memory or other storage media, input/output (I/O) devices andadapters, and the like. Furthermore, means for displaying the contentcan be fixed or removable, can be attached to or integrated intomoveable or stationary objects (including but not limited to cars,trains, trucks, aircraft, watercraft, mobile telephones, wirelesshandheld data devices, and other devices having, or capable of, beingconnected to a visual display), according to context of use.

Although the description above contains many details, these should notbe construed as limiting the scope of the invention but as merelyproviding illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodimentsof this invention. Therefore, it will be appreciated that the scope ofthe present invention fully encompasses other embodiments which maybecome obvious to those skilled in the art, and that the scope of thepresent invention is accordingly to be limited by nothing other than theappended claims, in which reference to an element in the singular is notintended to mean “one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, butrather “one or more.” All structural, chemical, and functionalequivalents to the elements of the above-described preferred embodimentthat are known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expresslyincorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed bythe present claims. Moreover, it is not necessary for a device or methodto address each and every problem sought to be solved by the presentinvention, for it to be encompassed by the present claims. Furthermore,no element, component, or method step in the present disclosure isintended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether theelement, component, or method step is explicitly recited in the claims.No claim element herein is to be construed under the provisions of 35U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, unless the element is expressly recitedusing the phrase “means for.”

TABLE 1 Typical Traffic Signal Event Timing Cycle North/South TrafficEast/West Traffic Left Turn Thru Traffic Seconds Left Turn Thru Traffic(1) red/wait amber-red/stop  3 sec red/wait red/wait (2) red/waitred/wait 12 sec ← green/go red/wait (3) red/wait red/wait 68 sec ←red/wait green/go (4) red/wait red/wait  3 sec red/wait amber-red/ stop(5) ← green/go red/wait 14 sec red/wait red/wait (6) red/wait green/go78 sec red/wait red/wait

1.-57. (canceled)
 58. A system, comprising: a mobile communicationdevice comprising a transmitter capable of forming a directcommunication link with a vehicle that is capable of moving, and amemory storing data regarding a user associated with said mobilecommunication device, wherein said data includes a user defined set ofchoices indicating timing and circumstances for display of content onthe vehicle based on choice data provided by said user regarding saiduser; the vehicle comprising a receiver, wherein the directcommunication link is formed with aid of the receiver, and an exteriordisplay capable of displaying the content, the exterior displaycomprising a structural component that is coupled to an aft portion ofthe vehicle; wherein the mobile communication device and the vehicledirectly exchange information via the direct communication link, saidinformation including a request for content to the vehicle based on thedata regarding the user associated with the mobile communication device;wherein the content is presented to the user associated with said mobilecommunication device, at least a portion of which is displayed on theexterior display of the vehicle; and wherein a record of thepresentation of the content is stored in a memory, said recordcomprising (1) information regarding the content presented, and (2)information comprising confirmation of the direct communication linkbetween the mobile communication device and the vehicle.
 59. A system asrecited in claim 58, wherein at least a portion of said structuralcomponent that is coupled to the vehicle occupies a license placerecess.
 60. A system as recited in claim 59, wherein said structuralcomponent partially occupies said license plate recess.
 61. A system asrecited in claim 59, wherein said structural component fully occupiessaid license plate recess.
 62. A system as recited in claim 58, whereinsaid structural component is at least partially a structural shell. 63.A system as recited in claim 58, wherein said structural component is atleast partially a structural pan.
 64. A system as recited in claim 58,wherein said structural component is at least partially formed of metal.65. A system as recited in claim 58, wherein said structural componentis at least partially formed of a composite of materials.
 66. A systemas recited in claim 58, wherein said structural component is fitted to atrunk of the vehicle.
 67. A system as recited in claim 58, wherein saidstructural component is fitted to a tailgate of a truck.
 68. A processof uploading a user defined set of choices that determine timing andproximity for display of content on a vehicle that is capable of movingand capable of such display, the process comprising: identifying a pointof departure and a point of arrival for the movement of said vehicle;identifying a multiplicity of possible routes between said point ofdeparture and said point of arrival; forecasting a value for thepotential display of content on said vehicle for each of said possibleroutes; and choosing the route based on the forecast value of saidpossible route.
 69. A process as recited in claim 68, wherein theforecast value is monetary.
 70. A process as recited in claim 68,wherein the forecast value is time.
 71. A process as recited in claim68, wherein the forecast value is distance.
 72. A process as recited inclaim 68, wherein the forecast value is selected from a group consistingof personal safety, comfort, exposure, and experience.
 73. A process asrecited in claim 68, wherein a forecast value is based upon a number andfrequency of at least one of advertisers, retail establishments,restaurants, malls, theaters, sidewalk traffic, pedestrians, specialevents, venues, gatherings, linked mobile communications devices,traffic lights, stop signs, and vehicles capable of display.
 74. Aprocess as recited in claim 68, wherein a forecast value is based uponflow and density of traffic.
 75. A process as recited in claim 68,wherein a forecast value is based upon a market demographic or aphysical geo-location.
 76. A process as recited in claim 68, wherein aforecast value is based upon at least one of weather conditions,detours, and qualities of the road or highway.
 77. A process as recitedin claim 68, further comprising combining said user defined set ofchoices that determine timing and proximity for display of content on avehicle that is capable of moving and capable of display with anetwork-defined set of choices to optimize the displayed content and theviewed content for said vehicle.
 78. A process as recited in claim 68,further comprising combining said user defined set of choices thatdetermine timing and proximity for display of content on a vehicle thatis capable of moving and capable of display with an algorithmicallydefined set of choices that optimizes the value of said user's displayof content to others while simultaneously optimizing said user's viewingof content from others.